400,000 signatures against war with Iran

On Wednesday, we issued a powerful challenge to Democrats in Congress: Support the Iran nuclear peace deal, or prepare to answer to your constituents for sabotaging diplomacy and pushing for war.

On Capitol Hill, Congressional Progressive Caucus members Reps. Keith Ellison, Barbara Lee, Mark Pocan and Jan Schakowsky joined CREDO and a huge coalition of our allies to deliver more than 400,000 petition signatures telling Democrats not to help Republicans start a war with Iran (view photos from the event here).

Many of the petition signatures were collected at StopWarWithIran.com, where activists have also made an incredible 37,000 phone calls to Congress in the past few weeks.

Now, with members of Congress poised to return home for August recess, the battle to uphold the Iran nuclear deal moves from Washington, D.C. out into communities across the country.

This is a fight we can win. A majority of the American people support diplomacy and if we go big we can make that clear.

When Congress returns from recess in September, there will almost certainly be a vote on whether to sabotage the Iran deal. If legislation passes to sabotage the deal, President Obama will veto it. So we need to organize a firewall of 146 representatives or 34 senators who will sustain the president’s veto. One-third, plus one, in the House or Senate – that’s what we need. If we can build a pro-peace firewall in Congress, we will have the votes we need to defend the deal from Republican attacks. (For more on this, check out our video explainer here.)

We have to make it clear that, like the vote on whether to invade Iraq, if member of Congress vote against peace and for war they should be prepared to answer for that decision for the rest of their careers in public office.

This fight will be won or lost in August. I’ll be posting additional diaries soon about how you can stay involved in CREDO’s campaign to support the Iran nuclear deal and stop Republicans from pushing us into a disastrous war with Iran.