Long story short: tell your Congressfolk to protect voting rights, end solitary confinement at federal prisons, and protect our CFPB from Republicans who'd defund it. Use the tools in the upper right-hand corner of this page (or, if you're on a cellphone, the bottom of this page) to find your Congressfolk's phone numbers and/or use the email/petition tools in the following paragraphs.
The Daily Kos Democracy Project helps you tell your Congressfolk to protect our voting rights, including passing the Freedom to Vote Act and the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act. The former bill would, among other good works, force big donors to disclose their campaign contributions and prevent partisan state legislatures from gerrymandering Congressional seats to their own advantage; the latter bill would force any state or locality (even one outside the South!) that routinely suppresses voting rights to submit their election law changes for Justice Department review. Doesn’t matter that big-drama Republicans don’t want to do it, because they will, eventually, pay the price for refusing to listen to us. But only if we’re loud enough.
The Daily Kos Liberation League helps you tell your Congressfolk to pass the End Solitary Confinement Act. Two centuries ago, Quakers conceived of solitary confinement as a way for a criminal to reflect on his wrongdoing, but in modern hands solitary too often becomes a way of punishing without rehabilitating, plus we use it all the time, and plenty of tools lose effectiveness when overused. The End Solitary Confinement Act would outlaw solitary at federal prisons, except for four-hour periods, and even then only as a way to de-escalate crises; the bill would also expand oversight and due process for prisoners. Don’t listen to anyone who says it sounds like you want every prison to be Club Med! Treating prisoners like human beings and actively helping them rehabilitate themselves ain’t fucking Club Med, and anyone who says so is an asshole. End of.
Finally, Americans for Financial Reform helps you tell your Congressfolk to reject any effort to subject our Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (or CFPB) to the Congressional appropriations process. Currently our Federal Reserve funds our CFPB, using fees from banks, and before you think but maybe Congress should always get to appropriate funds for federal agencies, note well that the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (or FDIC) and Federal Housing Finance Agency (or FHFA) also get their funding from our Federal Reserve, and ain’t nobody whining about that! If folks only whine about our CFPB getting such funding, maybe our CFPB's doing something right! So let’s keep it that way. And here's three more words that describe those who would zero out CFPB funding: defunding the police.
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