Chop Wood, Carry Water 12/22

Mid-week, holiday edition! 🎄

Hi, all, and happy (late) Wednesday!

Hope you’re enjoying your holiday preparations—if you celebrate Christmas—and staying safe from Omicron to the best of your ability.

Me? I’m supposed to be on vacation, but I’m finding it challenging. 😂

So while this isn’t a full “normal” CWCW, I wanted to send a midweek check-in with a few things that felt immediately pressing.

(For new subscribers, I rarely take time off. Christmas week to New Years is pretty much it for me. I’ll be back with the full five-day-a-week newsletter on January 3rd.)

Three things below, then I’m going back to eating cookies, and I hope you will, too.

Have a Listen

I had the pleasure of being the inaugural guest on Robert Hubbell’s new podcast this past weekend. The episode is available to play now, right here. Listen and you’ll get a very good sense of who I am, how this newsletter came to be, and what it aims to do. You’ll also have the pleasure of hearing Hubbell (and his wife and daughter) speak brilliantly on many subjects. It’s pretty cool.

A Helpful Legislative Update From Indivisible

I want to quote them somewhat at length, as they offer a good summary of where we are now and what happens next:

“Let’s address the elephant in the room. You may have heard a recent interview given by Senator Joe Manchin regarding the build back better plan. That interview may have (likely did) infuriate you. But I am here to remind you of a few things: Senator Manchin didn’t say he doesn’t support the plan, he says he doesn’t support the plan “as written”; Senator Manchin did the same thing with the For The People Act, which he now supports after he gave it a new name; Senator Manchin wants the attention, which is why he made the statement on Fox; and, finally, Senator Manchin is milking this opportunity for every dollar that it is worth.

You likely heard his Fox interview but you may not have heard his interview with local news outlet, WV Metro News, during which the interviewer pushed him to be explicit about the parts of the BBB that he felt he couldn’t “come home and explain” to West Virginians… if you did have a chance to listen to that interview, you would have heard him fumble through a non-answer and then eventually reveal that the real reason is because he didn’t like how White House staff were negotiating and he didn’t like being “bullied” by protesters into agreeing. It’s important to mention that those “protesters” are West Virginians who want to see this bill passed so, really, his current flop has less to do with him “standing up” for West Virginians so much as it has to do with his ego.

Everything he is doing is a political calculation, don’t ever forget that. So, what we do is take that calculation into consideration as we strategize how to beat his algorithm. Rest assured that our folks in WV are going to push him with the same vigor in which they pushed him after he wrote the Op-Ed saying he wouldn’t support the FTPA. If and when there becomes an opportunity for folks from out-of-state to get involved, we will let you know. 

Until then, congressional staff have gone home for the holidays, so making calls won’t necessarily be that effective over the next 11 days. That is why for the rest of the year, we want you to get some rest and enjoy a well-deserved winter break. 

We hope you get that much needed R&R, because we are going to need renewed energy in 2022, when we push for BBB and democracy reform to be passed as quickly as possible. 

We know that it’s been a long year and so many of you are frustrated with our Senate Democrats who need to get both the Freedom to Vote Act and Build Back Better over the finish line. We are too. But, as we fight for a bold recovery package and democracy reform, there is no one we would rather be in this fight than with you. 

That last line is especially true when it comes to y’all!!

Finally, a Hail Mary Pass

Most of you know that I never, ever suggest that you call a Senator or House rep who isn’t your own (unless it’s Nancy Pelosi or Chuck Schumer.) But in this case I am making an exception.

Joe Manchin is a practicing Catholic. Let’s call him at 202-224-3954 or 304-264-4626 or 304-368-0567 and say (something like):

Senator, a line in Proverbs 3:27 says: “Do not withhold good from those to whom it is due, when it is in your power to do it.” It is in your power to do so much good by supporting the Expanded Child Tax Credit provision in the Build Back Better Act. If this payment goes away 4 million children—50,000 of whom live in your state—will fall below the poverty line immediately. You can save them singlehandedly. What an incredible power to have. Please use it for good. Thank you. [H/T]

[I am intentionally not including “My name is ____ and my zip code is ____,” because most of us aren’t constituents. Again, this is a Hail Mary Pass. But if you’re from West VA please be sure to include it.]

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OK, all. I’m sure I’ll be back before the week is out. In the meantime take care, try to rest, and know that I am fueling up for the fight of our lives in 2022.

Which we will win.

Warmly,

Jess