Civil rights group hitting Sen. Kyrsten Sinema over filibuster during Hulu horror movies

"The dream always starts the same. I'm locked in a house. There's this woman; I can't see her face. She's yelling about someone not listening to her," an Arizona voter says as she begins to describe what is more like a nightmare.

Thus begins the new horror-movie-style trailer titled "The Betrayal," released by Just Democracy, a national alliance of minority-led, civil rights organizations that advocates for sweeping institutional changes such as the elimination of the filibuster in pursuit of a more racially equitable society.

The Arizona voter continues in the ad: "The woman is me; I realize I'm not dreaming."

"Who else is there?" a male voice asks.

"Sinema," the constituent responds, with quick clips of Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, D-Ariz., saying "filibuster" on a TV screen in the background.

"It all comes back to her; She's keeping us trapped," the woman continues, "She's using this Jim Crow relic to hold us back."

President Barack Obama used the term "Jim Crow filibuster" in his eulogy of civil rights icon John Lewis, the long-serving Congress member for whom the voting rights legislation is named.

Spurning Sinema's position on the filibuster, the coalition of self-described "Black and Brown" activists is spending in the low hundred-thousand dollar range on "The Betrayal" trailer in regional media and on Hulu during commercials for scary movies.

This is on top of the $1.5 million dollar ad blitz five months ago on Sinema's filibuster stance.

"Holding onto the filibuster at this moment is not a way to protect democracy," Stephany Rose Spaulding, a Just Democracy spokesperson and coalition member, told The Arizona Republic. "It's actually blocking what is best for Black and Brown communities right now."

In a June 21 op-ed for the Washington Post, Sinema explained her stance on the Senate legislative maneuver that allows a single senator to block future potential laws if the bill does not have the support of 60 senators in the 100-member chamber.

Her piece, which Sinema's Senate office cites as her current position, argues that the filibuster has been used by Democrats to block undesirable legislation on abortion and the environment and is a tool to combat extremism on both sides of the aisle.

"To those who want to eliminate the legislative filibuster to pass the For the People Act (voting-rights legislation I support and have co-sponsored), I would ask: Would it be good for our country if we did, only to see that legislation rescinded a few years from now and replaced by a nationwide voter-ID law or restrictions on voting by mail in federal elections, over the objections of the minority?”

Spaulding says in response that as each Senate gets to make their own rules, the Republicans would change parliamentary procedures to whatever is politically expedient at the moment, citing Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell's past actions as well as the Republican use of the budget reconciliation process to pass legislation.

"Mitch McConnell demonstrated that the filibuster was not going to deny him two Supreme Court justices ...," she added, referring to the Senate confirmations of President Donald Trump's nominees Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett after McConnell and his fellow Republicans in 2017 lowered the voting threshold on Supreme Court nominees to 51 from 60.

Just Democracy released its Sinema trailer on Nov. 3, the second time the voting rights bill was blocked by Senate Republicans.

While Sinema has supported every voting rights bill during her tenure as senator, Just Democracy says that her support is empty because she is not supporting its pathway passage with her position in favor of keeping the filibuster.

That viewpoint is reflected at the end of the new ad, with the male voice asking about the woman's reaction to Sinema's position.

"Betrayed," she replies.

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This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Civil rights group aims horror-style 'trailer' at Sen. Kyrsten Sinema