 Today, the Senate voted on the Women's Health Protection Act and expectedly it failed in a 49 to 51 vote. This was their attempt to codify Rome. Nobody expected it to actually succeed because it needed 60 votes. And it bombed even supposedly pro-choice Republicans Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski voted against this. And also the Republicans got the support of one Democrat who joined them in blocking this particular bill. Take a guess as to who that is. Just guess. Mr. Manchin. Mr. Manchin. No. You guessed right. Because as CNBC explains, Democratic Senator Joe Manchin joins GOP to block abortion rights bill that would codify Roe v Wade. So what this tells us is that even if they got rid of the filibuster to hold a vote on this, it would still fail because Manchin is anti-choice. He'd side with the Republicans. See, if they had Manchin on board and they got rid of the filibuster, then that would be a 50-50 split. The vice president, Kamala Harris, would cast the tie-breaking vote and then they would successfully be able to codify Roe v Wade into law with the Women's Health Protection Act. But that's not happening because a Democrat voted with Republicans. I mean, there used to be these blue-dog Democrats that were essentially socially liberal but fiscally conservative. Joe Manchin is both fiscally conservative and socially conservative as well. So what exactly is the point of him being in this party? It makes no sense that he's a Democrat. Makes no sense whatsoever. He's even blocking abortion rights. And he's a Democrat. It's just, it's ridiculous. Now, there is an important lesson to be learned about this because prior to the vote, there was one anti-choice Democrat, Senator Bob Casey, and it was really unclear as to where he'd vote. But there were some activists who decided to stay just sitting in his office and they almost certainly changed his mind. As Kenny Stansel of Common Dreams explains, progressive activists occupied Democratic Senator Bob Casey's office in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania on Tuesday, after which the historically anti-choice lawmaker announced his intention to vote for the Women's Health Protection Act to codify the reproductive rights that are now in peril thanks to the U.S. Supreme Court's right-wing majority. This week, I will again vote yes to advance debate on the Women's Health Protection Act and I will support the bill if there is a vote on final passage in the future, Casey said in a statement. The Pennsylvania Democrat statement was released just minutes after members of Lancaster stands up, occupied his office in the state capital. Now Lancaster stand up tweeted, we are here in Senator Casey's office demanding he support the Women's Health Protection Act and end the filibuster to pass the bill. Follow our live stream on Instagram. Now, managing director of justice Democrats, Becker Rast tweeted, minutes after this, Senator Bob Casey released a statement saying he will support the Women's Health Protection Act. Community pressure works. Thank you to every single Pennsylvania who has pressured Senator Casey and Lancaster stand up for making this action happen. So that right there is how it's done. Now I want to put that picture back on the screen one more time because this is a relatively small group of people and I don't know how many people were there to be clear, but still regardless if this group size was doubled and they just weren't on camera, this small group of people made an enormous impact. They actually got a senator to change his mind. Imagine what you can do with a small group of friends. You can actually accomplish a lot. Now, some of you might be thinking, well, this isn't going to work on mansion because, I mean, time after time, he's been protested. He's been heckled over the last year and he hasn't budged at all. But that doesn't mean that he won't be broken ever. It's just that there hasn't been a sufficient level of protests to make him uncomfortable enough and maybe a sit in wouldn't work with mansion. But perhaps it might have a bigger impact on Lisa Murkowski or Susan Collins. I mean, she literally called the police when she saw a shock in front of her house. They wrote a pro-choice message and she called the cops. So perhaps, you know, public pressure would make her change her mind faster. I'm not sure, but it's not like Joe Manchin is incapable of changing his mind and no amount of public pressure is going to work. Again, you just have to exert the right amount of public pressure and it's clear it's going to take more on him to get him to buckle and change his mind. So, you know, this is a really important learning lesson, I think. You know, you can actually do a lot if you target senators and you protest them at the right time. You can get them to actually change their minds on issues. So it doesn't necessarily have to be in person if you can't travel. You can organize, you know, phone call campaigns where you all call a senator's office at once. I mean, a lot of them will respond to public pressure. I know that a lot of us are kind of demoralized because we've exerted nonstop public pressure on Kirsten Sinema and Joe Manchin over the last year and they haven't buckled. But still, that's not the case for every single member of Congress. A lot of them do actually respond to public pressure. So, you know, overall, I'm not going to be too down about this vote because this is exactly what I expected. But it is interesting to know that even if they got rid of the filibuster because of Joe Manchin, they still would not be able to codify the most basic right that human beings should have control over their own bodily autonomy. Women will not have this right because of people like Joe Manchin refusing to get rid of the filibuster. And even if they, you know, were able to get Manchin on board to want to get rid of the filibuster, well, Kirsten Sinema doesn't want to get rid of the filibuster. She supported this bill, but she wouldn't support it unless it got 60 votes, which tells you that she's not actually serious about codifying Rowan's law. So, you know, the situation in Congress is absolutely ridiculous. It's shameful, but this is where we're at. I think that these activists who protested Senator Bob Casey, they're creating a blueprint that a lot of us should follow if we actually do want to have an impact on politics. 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