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Is Your Elected Official Really Listening?
Oliver Wendell Jones asks: "In the past few weeks, since the Sept. 11 incident, I have tried to become much more involved with what's going on politically. It started with my sending e-mails to the members of the senate committee discussing H.R. 2500 (secure encryption) and received very polite e-mails from almost eveyone stating one of two (or sometimes both) generic messages. Not one of their e-mail responses included anything stating their feelings for or against H.R. 2500, so I have no idea if my e-mails had any effect." While I'm all for automated responses to take off the pressure in terms of response time, I'd at least expect aides to take care of these things. Autoresponses aren't enough, and when someone takes the time to write a Representative, whether it be snail mail or email, someone should respond. Of course, if they don't respond to written messages, try calling them directly and make sure an aide knows why you are calling. How many of you have tried and failed when attempting to ping your Rep on government issues that were important to you?
I also sent e-mails (and one fax) to the Representatives and Senators of my state (Indiana) on this same topic and received responses similar to those I had received from the others (terrorists are bad, mmmkay?)
Last week, in response to another request from the EFF, I sent snail-mail letters to my Senators and Representative concerning the SSSCA. This time I received a two page, snail-mail form letter reiterating that terrorists are still bad, which doesn't seem to have anything to do with the SSSCA.
Has anyone had any luck actually getting their point across to an elected official, and if so, what's the secret?" I think we can all agree that terrorists are bad, but so are bad laws that interfere with our rights. Several of these are trying to progress their way through the House and the Senate and it would be nice to know how the Representatives stand, one way or the other. How can one cut thru the rhetoric and get concrete information out of those who are supposed to be your duly elected representatives in government?
"The two responses I was able to receive were:
- They agreed that terrorists are bad.
- If I was a constituent of their state (i.e., I could vote for them) to please respond with my mailing address in their state (I did include my snail-mail address and I do not live in their states) and they would get back to me.
I also sent e-mails (and one fax) to the Representatives and Senators of my state (Indiana) on this same topic and received responses similar to those I had received from the others (terrorists are bad, mmmkay?)
Last week, in response to another request from the EFF, I sent snail-mail letters to my Senators and Representative concerning the SSSCA. This time I received a two page, snail-mail form letter reiterating that terrorists are still bad, which doesn't seem to have anything to do with the SSSCA.
Has anyone had any luck actually getting their point across to an elected official, and if so, what's the secret?" I think we can all agree that terrorists are bad, but so are bad laws that interfere with our rights. Several of these are trying to progress their way through the House and the Senate and it would be nice to know how the Representatives stand, one way or the other. How can one cut thru the rhetoric and get concrete information out of those who are supposed to be your duly elected representatives in government?
how many times does it need to be said. Politicians really don't use email to listen to constituents. Call or write or meet with them, but email is horrible way to seriously communicate with them. They are very busy people.
When a huge event like Sept. 11th occurs, it's usually followed up by loads of mail (snail and electronic). A representative only has so much time to respond to mail. If you get a response, consider yourself extremely lucky you did, kind of like winning the lottery.
You can often call, write letters, or even stop by the offices of these local guys. At least, then you will have a feeling of having your message heard.
Of course these only effect state laws, not the national anti-terrorist or SSSSCA crap.
Of course, the impression I got after all of this, was that if I couldn't vote against them in an upcoming election, they didn't care about my opinion.
This is perfectly reasonable considering that the responsibily of all senators and representatives is to protect the interest of the people who live in their state/district. This is outdated considering we live in a much different country than we did 200 years ago, however his response is exactly what the founders of the country were aiming to have happen.
#include
go ahead call me synical
42
I'm appauled that our elected representatives have decided to ignore the people that elected them. I've heard of reps that don't even use their email, or only accept written letters. They seem to think that if you take the time to write it down and send it, it must be important. I guess speed isn't of the essence when they're rushing a bill through the house's. I think we need to speak loudly next election day and push that all communication methods be used and accepted.
3000 dead over past 2 years, still no free Palestinians, still
Slashdot left-wing politics really shouldn't be the focus of this site. If i want pseudo-intellectual discussion, i'd hit kuro5hin instead.
Please editors, cut this and the anime shit out PLEASE!! i beg of you!! This site is turning to a bigger and bigger turd every day.
Encryption crap?? Who really cares! Get some priorities here. Elected officials are worried about how to keep Americans from getting killed. Do you really think that anybody could give 2 shits right now what you think about encryption? Come out of your hole for a bit. Try to realize that the world does not revolve around you and your damn geek issues.
Those who want to govern are those least fit to do so. There is your problem. Democracy is mearly a large number of dictators spread all around your country.
If anyone has success stories of how you hade been able to get through to these old men, since they are mostly old men, do share it to encourage more to do the same.
we just elect the polticians. we don' bother trying to convince them. if you ever wanted to convince them otherwise, just don't re-elect them.
Hand-written or typed letters
Hand-written or typed letters
Hand-written or typed letters
Let's keep saying it a few more times, and maybe it will sink in.
Senators don't read Slashdot.
Representatives don't read Slashdot.
GWB doesn't read Slashdot.
Few of them read their email. What do you do with your un-solicited email? Guess what they do?
Hand-written or typed letters!
Get a pen.
Get some paper.
Get an envelope.
It's not that hard.
Hand-written or typed letters.Thank you.
Well, I hate to break it to you, but if you DON'T live in their states, then it isn't their job to listen to you. You are wasting their time.
They were voted into place to represent the people who could have voted for them. What is best for the people in their state has little to do with your opinion on any matter.
On the other hand, YOUR representatives shoud be listening to you. Keep after them.
--T
http://www.theMediaBunker.com
I have written my Congressman via snailmail numerous times and always been responded to, on topics ranging from video game violence to copyright law. The problem with E-mailing your congressman is that it's way too impersonal, IMO. I'm sure the Congressman is getting WAY more e-mail than snailmail and they get easily backlogged, especially in the days of SPAM. It's also easy to just setup an autoresponder and forget about it.
If you want to write your Congressman, take the time to write an ACTUAL letter, print it out on nice stationary, and use the good old United States Postal Service to deliver it. Words on paper carry more weight than words on a computer screen.
Do you really want your words to be heard?
Execute? [Y/N] _
It has been established through many years of lobbying our "elected" officials on various topics that e-mail simply does NOT register with them. Their opinion - which does have some validity to it - is that e-mail is too easy to generate and doesn't show much of an effort on the constituent's part. Therefore, if you, the taxpayer, didn't make an effort to express your opinions in some other way, why should they, the plutocrats, expend any energy to respond?
Until such time as our esteemed legislators enter the 20th century - which won't happen in my lifetime - you will generally get real responses that you will appreciate if you use 19th-century postal mail. Phone calls and faxes get slightly more attention than e-mail, but you shouldn't expect a meaningful response from those, either.
The simple problem is this. Our public officials have lots of things to do and can not each handle every single question that is posed to them. In order to at least make one feel their message has been received (in one way or another) is to send out auto-responses or form letters.. blah blah.
Even if their Aids were to answer mail personally... there could be, at any one time, a few thousands letters from constituants alone (not to mention non-constituants) and that simply would involve so many man hours to pump out these personalized letters.
Hi, and yeah it *can* be done, but then you're going to complain about how much taxes are and how much of your paycheck you lose and blah blah blah.... if you want the "service" then pay for it... say to your representative "Hi, I am willing to give you an extra $250/yr if you can have someone in your office assist me with my concern"... and when the bill gets passed as state law and there are another 1,000 state employees working for your representatives and you're billed that extra $250/yr extra, I'm sure you'll be sending in letters "Hi, taxes are too high... you need to lower taxes!" and hopefully their response will be, "Aren't you the moron who requested higher taxes?"
Anyway, I think you get my point. There is no way to provide you with a personalized response to your concerns because there isn't enough hours in the day or money in the budget for the manpower to do it. Be lucky you received any response. If you want a personalized response, offer a half million for his/her next campaign.
In fact, that's not a bad idea... there are plenty of Washington lobbyists (tobacco, oil, etc)... maybe the EFF should raise money to be a Washington lobbyist too... and they can raise money to provide campaign contributions to certain representatives to get our views heard.
And I'm not being sarcastic... this may be a good idea!
I think we can all agree that terrorists are bad, but so are bad laws that interfere with our rights.
So, bad laws are *bad*. Ok, got that. You know what else is bad? Bad milk.
So are bad people. They are bad.
Considering that the Senate Passed the Anti-Terrorism Bill with an overwhelming 96-1 vote. Reading through the quotes in the linked article, it is particularly disturbing how most of the senators see nothing wrong with the bill and are opposed to limiting the duration of the bill as the House wants to.
The house hasn't voted on their version of the bill yet so there is still time to inundiate your representatives with phone calls, faxes and letters.
It just takes time. Do you know how many letters, e-mails, and phone calls the Representatives and Senators get each day? When the peanut butter and jellly sandwich patent came to light I fired off an e-mail to my representative, Frank Wolf (R-VA). Six weeks later I got a reply from one of his staffers who had looked into the matter, decided that the pb&j that was patented was more like a pop-tart than a traditional pb&j, and was therefore novel enough to be patentable. I sent a note thanking him for looking into the matter.
Best Slashdot Co
Put in a check for $20 or so.
I'm serious makes all the difference between the auto-responce and a real letter, probably written by an aide but at least someone knows you care about the issue.
I have been sending emails to my Senator, Bob Graham of Florida for months now and I don't even get an auto-response. But that won't stop me from stating my opinion for the record, so to speak...There is obviously a logistical problem created when correspondence is increased, but we need not slow down our attempts. Unless we can find a way to increase staff and insure that a proper vetting service occurs within the Congressional Offices, maybe we need to form public committees (Public Intrest Lobbies?) to get more personal contact with Congressmen/women?
I worked for a Congressman for three months as an intern, and I can tell you this:
You're right - nobody cares.
I filled out, entered, filed, etc. etc. etc., hundreds upon thousands of constituant letters, non-constituant letters, return envelopes, return letters, etc, etc, etc. Do you honestly think that anyone has the time to respond to over 10,000 letters a month on an individual basis?
While everyone's thoughts matter, there's just no way to be fair about replies. I've read - quite literally - hundreds of letters that were actually handwritten or typewritten from people with scores of different concerns. To be fair, however, all I was ever allowed to do was send the standard reply letter and trace the Congressman's signature.
It sucks, I know. I've written George Bush, Bill Clinton, and Dubya tons of e-mail, snail mail, etc. on tons of different issues.
I've not once gotten a personal reply - not even from a secretary.
It sucks, but when you get like 100,000 correspondances a month, you can't really reply to them without tipping the scales towards a few select individuals who you deem 'worthy'.
But isn't everyone equally worthy?
Oh well...just keep writing, maybe it will happen!
SMasters
maleboja@ici.net
These guys are not exactly up on technology, and that lack of knowledge is noticed by staff so they don't care either. They'd rather look at mail on a piece of stationary than some computer screen.
These guys like formal, and e-mail is not a formal messaging system. It's likely to never be formal, so that's just the way things are.
My father works(ed) for Trans World Airlines, and although he is a resident of Florida, he has communicated with and received personal responses from Rep. Dick Gephardt (Missouri). This is doubtlessly due to the fact that TWA has a major hub in St. Louis, so the welfare of TWA affects a lot of Rep. Gephardt's constituents. From representatives in my own state of Florida, I've received responses directly from the top when I have sent letters or emails concerning pending legislation. I once received a very negative response from Bob Graham, but it didn't bother me much since I didn't vote for him anyways.
I emailed my Senators and representative about several things over the last few months. Each time including my mailing address so they could be sure I was in their state/District and never got anything other than an automated response.
To make matters worse one of my senators, Mark Dayton, does not even have an email address. I find not having an email address for our state senator and embareassment.
I doubt many proud patriot freedom fighters who champion the crushing of civil liberties in the battle for freedom were writing to their Senators, given the low exposure of the bill in general. And I know on this side of the fence, we have been getting warnings about it everywhere, with calls to WRITE YIOUR REPRESENTATIVE.
So somewhow, I'm guessing they probably all guy a great deal of emails and maybe even phone calls urging them not to pass 1510 as it is, but they were doing so many other things other than tallying up how many requests they got to vote for it and against it.
Russ Feingold was the lone dissenter in the Senate, if anyone wants to write him a letter of thanks. I guess.
Who cares if NSA/CIA/FBI is snooping around, trying to see who is plotting against the government. In philosophy and sociology, there's the saying, "there is no natural law." At some point people have to accept they have to work together to make the world safer. That doesn't necessarily mean encryption legislation, but it does mean a change in how things are done.
"Well, I hate to break it to you, but if you DON'T live in their states, then it isn't their job to listen to you. You are wasting their time."
I would disagree a bit here. All members of the US Congress are supposed to act in the best interest of the nation as a whole. In practice they will of course focus on the concerns of their electoral district, but that should not prevent them from taking a wider view - Senators in particular.
sPh
I never send email to my elected officials. I know it does not get the same consideration that snail mail does, so I don't waste my time with it. Every time I want to tell my representative something, I send a real letter, on paper, in an envelope, with a stamp.
How many times do you need to be told that before you understand?!?!!?!? Yes, some representatives do respond well to email, but so what?!?!?! How much more difficult is it to print out your letter and put it in an envelope?
Wake up and smell the coffee, buddy.
And the men who hold high places must be the ones who start
To mold a new reality... closer to the heart
I once wrote my state representative with my concerns about a recent commercial expansion in my area. The traffic was becoming more than a small problem, as people were becoming increasingly gridlocked and late for work and school buses couldn't get to their stops in time to get local children to school in time for their first class. The increasing number of people shopping in the area also brought more crime, as parking lot stick-ups became frighteningly more frequent and carjackings happened in the area for the first time.
A few days later I got a letter thanking me for my concern and assuring me that my representative was co-operating with other representatives to get new road projects going in the area and limit further large-scale commercialization (re: shopping centers) in the area. I was more or less pleased with this reply.
Imagine my surprise when a few days after that I got another letter thanking me for supporting my representative's co-operation with business leaders who wanted to expand to our area. The letter went on to promise that my representative would push for more commercial zoning, promising an influx of new jobs to my area.
*sigh*
My sigs always suck.
Email is never going to work for this kind of thing. To be heard, you have to expend some effort. If it's too easy for you to protest, no one's going to listen, simply because the signal-to-noise ratio is too high. That's why easy methods tend to be aggregated (e.g., petitions).
Think of email as being at one end of the range, and self-immolation at the other. You have to pick your spot on the scale based on how much you care, and your elected representative will take notice accordingly.
I send an email to my representative, Max Cleland (GA) about strong encryption a couple of years ago. I got back a personal letter via snail mail disussing it. He did not really agree with my thoughts on the issue, but the letter was signed by him and seemed well-researched. If he did not write it, one of his staffers at least looked into it before sending me a reply.
- Vincit qui patitur.
The other possibility would be aides writing up their own feelings on the matter, which wouldn't necessarily reflect the views of the persons the letter was addressed to. You might happen to have your letter answered by somebody who agrees with your or panders to you, or you might be answered by somebody who opposes your thoughts.
The form letter is often the best choice given the constraints, unless you want to generate a cottage industry of people copying doctrine down with pen and ink.
I take issue with only accepting views of people who can vote against you though. I'm not a citizen, but I live in the U.S. I'm taxed at the same rate as everybody else yet somehow my voice is less important because I can't vote. I happen to find it disgusting that politicians are taking advantage of this tragedy to take away fundamental rights and freedoms. The 5 or 6 thousand deaths are being used as a distraction despite the fact that hundreds of times this number have died to earn and protect these freedoms.
Chris Kuivenhoven is a thief, beware
our representatives do not respond to emails like they do to good old fashiopned snail mail, there really is a difference in having a bunch of bytes on a computer hard drive and a mailbox filled with solid tangible letters.
If you really want to get your opinions across, print out the letter and mail it to them
Thanks to file sharing, I purchase more CDs
Thanks to the RIAA, I buy them used...
I came to the conclusion years ago that emailing representatives (or just about anyone in government) seems to be pretty much worthless. You have to take into account how many emails they get on a daily basis. No one can read that much; thats why they have staffers. I would guess that only a small fraction actually GETS to your representative.
The best way to elicit a response is to drop your concerns in an actual piece of mail and send them. Send them priority if you're in a rush. Send them in a brightly color envelope to grab attention if they're in a pile with other mail. But you've got a better chance of your concerns being heard if you put your concerns in a letter and actually mail it.
Only once have I ever heard back heard back from a rep when it came to email. (that was senator Dodd from CT when I voiced my concerns about echelon. i got a nice reply back, in the mail. not a generic response, but a rather lengthy reply.) Ive sent mail to the gov't through the postal system a number of times, and usually have gotten a reply back.
Just go buy a stamp.
I regularly write Paul Wellstone and Mark Dayton in the Senate and Martin Sabo in the House. Wellstone ususally sends a fairly relevant form reply, Dayton has yet to get back to me (although he also gets less from me because he doesn't have e-mail (!) available). Sabo always sends me a letter in the mail that addresses the issue a raise, and explains how he voted on relevant legislation and why - even when he voted contrary to the position I state. I admire that a lot.
Vote in primaries. Vote in elections. If your representative dissapoints you and fails to respond to your concerns, make sure they know you will be voting against them in the next primary and why. Just you doing that won't change the world. But just a few thousand people in your state doing it could have a huge effect on the actions of congress. We all know the Religious Right is politically quite powerful compared to its absolute size. Why? Because they are active and unified. That's all. I don't like their issues or tactics but their political technique is rock solid and represents democracy in action.
It Is the Nature of Information to Transgress Artificial Boundaries
Generally, the more effort one puts in to contacting a politician (within the bounds of reason, of course) the more likely one of their staffers is to actually present your opinion to that politician.
Handwriten letters on good stationary (prefably with a company letterhead, if you have the right to present your companies' opinion) from an address in their district will attract a lot more notice than an email ever will.
If you're going to go down to their district office, then be sure to be well dressed and clean cut.
Given the current focus on terrorism, going somewhere in person and presenting your views on non-terrorist acitivities that way will get alot more attention than any form of mail.
Attending one of the $(lots of money)/plate dinners is also a very good way to actually *meet* the congress people, as well as to get in to the political loop.
Finally, make sure that your opinions are very well thought out. Simply saying that something is bad will get you nowhere. Explaining why something is bad while offering an idea for alternative legislation should be much more productive.
Elected officials, specifically Representatives and Senators, are still supposed to pass laws. And when they pass laws that restrict our freedoms, any of them, laws that we as citizens don't agree with, it is our duty to let them know we don't like it.
I care about these issues, these freedoms. Thinking, intelligent people care. So should you. So should our Reps and Senators.
Who is this Anonymous Coward character, how does he post so much, and why is he always such a whore?
Unfortunately, the words "concrete answer" and "politician" are mutually exclusive.
However, if you are interested in getting their attention, or an answer of some kind, then the #1 rule is: Write a letter, sign it, and mail it. I know it goes against the grain of most slashdoters to use such an antiquated method, but it is well known that most congressmen pay little attention to e-mail, and much more to snail-mail.
But as far as that concrete response, don't hold your breath. Letters are effective, especially from constituents. Effective, in that they can indeed sway the vote. If you get a real response, do not expect much. I can remember one time when I received a response to a letter sent urging a particular vote on a foreign slave-labor bill. The response I received was (paraphrased): "I agree with you. However, I'll let my advisers tell me how to vote on this one."
And one more thing: Convince your friends to write as well. One letter might not be noticed, but even 2 or 3 often are.
Mir tut es leid, Menschen daß Einfältigfehlersuchenbaumfolgendenaffen sind.
...just your position.
When writing congress, it is best to send an email something like this:
===============
From: You
To: Your Senator or Rep
Sub: H.R. 2500 - OPPOSE (or SUPPORT)
I support H.R. 2500 because (make it short).
Your Name
Your Street
Your City, State ZIP
==================
I mean, come on... do you really think they have to time to read your email and respond to every point? Just let them know your POSITION and how you want them to vote.
You can voice your OPINION at the local watering hole.
I am very small, utmostly microscopic.
I have found that if I want to influence my elected representatives, that email is probably the least effective means possible. The best way to get noticed is to have something _physical_ in their hands, and the more personal it looks, the better. A snail-mail letter works great, and a fax is nearly as good. Furthermore, if I want them to respond, they need to know that I am in their district, so the letter gets a real name, with a physical address in their district. For really important issues, I do not even use the computer printer, but hand write the letter. Whether it is mailed or faxed, that virtually always gets a response. Remember that the person reading your correspondence sees tons of it each week, and so yours needs to stand out as being both important and genuine.
Soli Deo Gloria
I've seen that "tell me your address so I know you're one of my constituents" thing before. Makes sense to me, as long as you're contacting them about something that the entire House or Senate is considering. But what about issues that are currently in committee? I've read that this is where the real "action" happens on new bills, and is therefore the best place to get bad things changed. Even if I don't have a representative on the committee, shouldn't my opinion count just as much as anyone else's?
*starts rummaging for civics book*
-beme
1971
"The two responses I was able to receive were:
Of course, the impression I got after all of this, was that if I couldn't vote against them in an upcoming election, they didn't care about my opinion.
This isn't really surprising. Representatives and Senators are elected to represent their constituents. If you aren't in their district -- if indeed you can't vote against them -- then your opinion carries less weight.
Clearly this has problems when members of Congress are dealing with issues that can affect everyone. That's where spreading the word can help. Get the people who are in those members' districts to write, call, email, and fax.
Of course a representative isn't going to listen to you if you're not from their state. Why would they? You're not one of their constituents. The job of a state representative is to listen to the people of their district. If they listen to you instead, it's worse than not responding at all, because then the rep is acting contrary to the interests of his people.
If you want to influence the government, write, call, etc *your* representative.
Visit the
Your local representatives are in Congress to represent you and your community's views. That's how our system is designed. You have two Senators, and one House Representative. They work for you, and not the neighboring areas, or people across the country. In the same way, you can't expect someone else's representatives to work for you.
In real life, it does work a little differently, as votes are exchanged and aligned regularly, sometimes overriding the views of the local constituency. And of course your representatives vote based on their own opinions. That's why it's important to find out how candidates stand on various issues and vote based on that. Hopefully you get someone in office with views similar to your own.
I happen to be (not) represented by Cynthia McKinney, the cutest little communist in Congress.
She's basically interested in:
1. Hanging in the aisle to greet the President when he does State of the Union speeches.
2. Using taxpayer money to bribe people to vote for her.
3. Getting streets named for herself.
4. Standing up for her father, Billy, when he threatens to assault Ward Connerly.
Since I don't care to meet the President, am not living on welfare, don't collect the EITC, don't really care about street names (except for navigation purposes), and don't attempt to incite race riots, I'm of no interest to her. I can write and write and write - electronically or on paper - about items that interest me, but the plain fact is that I simply don't count.
668: Neighbour of the Beast
First,br> Warm body with monetary contribution
Warm female body [joke?]
Warm body
Then
Hand written letter
Letter
Telephone call
Fax
finally,
email
The problem is similar to the problem you see in banner ads and spam on the net.
Banner ads used to work great because of the novelty, now everyone ignores them.
And Reps get masses of email and mail from professional lobbyists trying to influence a vote. You think you get spam? The reps are basically DDOS'd by the stuff.
So the warm body approach is best. and do not forget to use small words. Many of these guys are not used to reading books without pictures.
"It is a greater offense to steal men's labor, than their clothes"
how about each rep getting a slashcode site for the public to discuss issues, and conduct daily polls on current issues followed by comentary?
voting a rep into office, and then having no (not much) say in what happens after just ain't right.
we have the technology, lets move forward before this becomes the United Corporations of America.
The chances of your letter actually being read by your representative are very slim. I went to high school in Fairfax county, Virignia, which is very close to Washington, DC. My senior year, I was in a political science class, and second semester, we interned. I interned at the ACLU. Quite a few people in my class interned for Senators or Representatives.
My classmates were reading the mail, sending out form letters. I don't know what the criteria was for a letter actually getting passed on, but the chances of your letter actually being read by the person you sent it to are rather slim.
For 50 bucks, I will listen to your statement. Oh what was that...
Next.
Here's how to get your letter through:
FAX - it gets read, you get snail mail back, and the snail mail may be relevant.
by this method,
Helms - wrote that he supported Ashcroft.
Edwards - sent a copied speech he made on the Senate floor, irrelevant to what I wrote him about.
Price - wrote back a letter stating that he was concerned about safe-guarding our civil liberties in the wake of the tragedy and that he shared my concerns.
I met Price briefly at a public appearance he made- he said if I wrote his office a letter and marked it PERSONAL, that he'd get it instead of an aide, and that we could schedule some time to discuss my concerns.
Email has seemed to leave a lesser impression that printing and mailing my letters, or faxing them.
Actually, I haven't tried for two reasons. One is the natural inclination of mine that since it's "wartime" most people really won't care (heck, most representatives only listen with one ear open during peacetime). But it goes beyond that.
Personally, I think "nerds" should step back and ask themselves whether it's really necessary to have what they consider "freedom". I'm all for freedom of speech, but in day-to-day life do with really need to encrypt everything? Further, given that people are dying, can there at least be a temporary moratorium on personal freedom to prevent further killings.
Nerds like conspiracies. They like the X-Files and love to think there's some higher "man" out there trying to dictate how they should act. Truth of the matter is: every wartime provision ever made negatively affecting personal freedom has either been mitigated or repealed over time. Find me one negatory personal freedom provision the US made in WWII or Vietnam that has stuck through to this day? If anything, these occasional provisions make us value our personal freedoms more.
I for one believe in logic, and my statement still stands to this day. People on these boards continually say "I'd rather be dead that lose my freedom of speech". I say, "What's the point of freedom of speech if you're already dead?"
What I've learned: the government doesn't have to listen to the citizens or acknowledge them. All they have to do is grease the right wheels to get into an election, then spend enough to get their name out. The less voters know about each candidate, the better for both sides, because then the race becomes about personality and party affilitation rather than having to deal with voters.
Even starting somewhat locally (in terms of the Federal Govt.), I've never gotten very far. In the 5 years I've lived where I do, I have snail-mailed my U.S. representative exactly 2xs (note: Before I moved here, I never mailed anyone at all). After the 1st, I got no response. After the 2nd, I got a form response 4 months after the fact which basically said that 'issues are important to this office'. The letter did not mention the bill I was protesting, and arrived months after votes had been cast.
I snail-mailed my State govt. rep. on one bill, too, and have since received occasional mailers from the state govt., but no response to the issue that concerned me.
"The girl makes Godot look punctual." -- Buffy
I would have thought finger was a more appropriate analogy in this case, since you're actually expecting the remote host to return information. Then again, "fingering your representative" could be misconstrued as something inappropriate...
-- If no truths are spoken then no lies can hide --
a few weeks ago, i wrote all of my home state's represenatives and a few other officials (about 6 letters and emails in all.) i received letters from 2 of them. the content was so generic and buzzworded, i could tell they hadn't even read my letters.
no, i don't think the government listens to us. i don't think my vote really matters. but as long as they're getting our tax dollars, they'll keep pretending that they really care.
You know the phrase "The way to a man's heart is through is stomach."? Well, the way to a politicians head is through his campain fund. That's the sad ugly truth.
-S
--- What parts of "shall make no law", "shall not be infringed", and "shall not be violated" don't you understand?
They're receiving thousands upon thousands of e-mails each day. It's too easy to send an e-mail and that's a measure of how much you care about a cause. Just send a well thought out, dead-tree letter and you will get a much more personalized response (I know I have).
Anything you can do, I can do meta.
Have you ever run a web site? Even for a site on a niche topic, you can often get a dozen or more emails a day. Responding to those takes time. Now imaging you ran a site that was moderately popular with a regular following. You'd likely get a hundred or more emails a day. Can you really respond to those personally? You'd be spending hours a day responding to them. Now imagine you're in a public position where you, theoretically, represent millions or tens of millions of people. You get 500 letters a day. Can you _really_ deal with them personally?
Fanboy types, who send email to George Lucas, various game companies, and makers of TV shows don't understand this. They think they deserve personal attention. They don't realize they are one of the masses.
I know that my elected officials respond to email, because I have twice recieved personal, thought out responses from Virginia officials (Former Governor Jim Gilmore and Sen. John Warner.) after sending in email. I know from talking to others that Senator Allen also gives some serious weight to email. Of course, tech is extremely important to the economy in Virginia, I somehow doubt that officials in the midwest pay as much attention to email.
Right now people trying to get involved need to realize that the government does not have much time to talk with us. Both email, snailmail, and phone calls are flooding capitol hill faster than staffers can deal with the correspondence. Officials are extremely busy legislating, meeting with each other, with the president, foreign officals and diplomats, and other people who are generally more important than the guy back home who wants an audience of some sort to talk about things that any ACLU lobbyist knows more about.
That does not mean, however that the officials are not listening. Staffers keep track of every email, letter, and phone call, and keep the officials posted on what the voters want. If you want to get a point across, keep up the letters. Support groups that lobby your point of view. Just remember to cut your officials some slack for not getting back to you during these trying times.
sPh
Throw it away, regardless of whether it is electronic or paper. In fact, I'm less likely to throw away the electronic stuff; it creates less clutter. So your distinction between email and mail in this respect is false.
But there's a more important point to be made: to a political representative, there is no such thing as unsolicited mail. When they signed up as a candidate for my representation, that was a solicitation of both my vote and my opinion, and they had better not ignore the latter after they've received enough of the former.
Those of us currently hosting the DMCA lecture series in Minnesota first tried to arrange meetings with our senators a few months ago. We hand-delivered letters to their local offices outlining our thoughts on the DMCA, and requested some time to sit with either the senator or someone from his office to discuss matters further. This was roundabout August, I think.
We never heard a response from either one--not a "no," not a form letter, nothing--by phone, fax, letter or email. It seems even coming to their office doesn't make a big impression on anyone.
I don't need large brains to have a good time.
I read about the kind of bills that are being considered (from more noteworthy sites than just /.), and how strongly I disagree with them. However, between working overtime, commuting, and being with my family, the last thing I feel compelled to do when I have free time is write a letter.
On the one hand, I don't want to just mail out a boilerplate letter that states several things, some of which I may not agree with. On the other hand, if I put in the time to send a well-researched letter, by the time I find enough time to so it, the issue will not be relevant anymore!
So, I donate to the EFF occasionally, and wait for the time when I'll be motivated enough to put off other aspects of my life to write these letters. Oh well. I should exercise, too, but I don't.
I've always wondered: would a phone call to a congressman's local office do any good? Will talking to a staffer for five minutes get any results?
I you want to get the attention of your Reps. USE SNAIL MAIL. Most governtment offices(elected offivials state and federal) recieve thousands and thousands of e-mails each day. You will get lost in the shuffle.
-- Tim
TKrabec Pahh
Often times, because email is a global thing and can easily be impersonated, elected officials are not super keen on acting on random emails they get since you may be from outside their district/state.
I've emailed my local reps a few times in Wisconsin, and I've always included my address to attest to my residency. I've even gotten responses (albeit by snail mail).
Yeah, maybe you might think they're old-timers for not adopting the internet, but they've got to make sure they're speaking for their constituents, not just others around the state/country/world.
Don't assume that because you receive an automated response or no response at all that no one took the time to read your letter. Sending out personal responses to constituents takes a tremendous amount of time and manpower in otherwise very busy congressional offices.
Also, I would not expect to receive a personal reply from someone who does not represent your state or district. They have a hard enough time keeping up with mail from their own constituents.
Finally, the medium does make a difference. E-mails and those pre-printed postcards that get sent to congress tend to get less attention than more formal printed letters. Make it look good and t will get noticed.
Over the summer I wrote my state's senator, 'Fritz' Hollings (South Carolina, of SSSCA 'infame'). The letter included two distinct topics, the first regarding my opposition to drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, the second a plea for intervention on behalf of Dmitry Sklyarov, jailed at the time.
Weeks later, I received a form reply about the ANWR, but nothing regarding Dmitry.
So the lesson I learned: stick to one topic in your message, that way they can't respond to one part and ignore another.
BTW, 'Fritz' will be getting a letter about the SSSCA soon.
I'm a registered Democrat in the Great State of South Dakota. (No not the Dakota with your cousins that live in Bismarck.)
I've had great luck with emailing and writing my Senators (Johnson and Daschle), although since Daschle became Senate Majority Leader, his office has gotten worse, so I talk more to Johnson's Office.
I'd really suggest moving to a State with a smaller population, it makes getting listened to easier. (Wyoming, Alaska, one of the Dakotas, Montana, Nevada are good ones).
Form a Technology Board of some sort, start mailing the Senators and Reps, and travel to Washington. My Grandmother is active in Water Rights and Electrification and Education and before her lung cancer, she traveled to D.C. 3-4 times a year and met with the Senators.
I disagree in most regards with one of my Senators (Tom Harkin, D-Iowa), but I have to respect him for, as nearly as I can tell, individually responding to the mail I send him--even email. Admittedly, I have no way of knowing whether he or an aide actually wrote the letter, but it's definitely from a human who paid attention to what I wrote.
Given the current FBI warnings of potential biological attacks via snail mail you would think politicians would be wise to actively encourage communication via email to minimize the security headache.
They'll listen to you if you have a lot of money, or if they think you do. They're too busy blowing big business, so they can get re-elected, to worry about you.
"Would it kill you to put down the toilet seat?" -- Maya Angelou
I wrote an email to my Rep regarding a technology issue. An aide did respond and responded personally not some form letter. He had actually looked at some of the things I referenced and flat admitted he didn't understand it. He then pointed me to the FCC which was the gov. org covering this topic. While I was not happy with the response I received I was happy to see someone actually read the email and tried to figure out the details behind it. This was Indiana about 6 months ago.
Remove the spam reference to email
I imagine congressional response to e-mails vary widely. I e-mailed everyone on the House Judiciary Committee back when there was only HR 2500 and universally got the response mentioned in the article (form e-mail, if you're not my constituent go away).
I e-mailed my House Rep (Lloyd Doggett, D, TX) and a few days later got a form letter in the mail which spoke directly about HR 2500.
I'm curious: are there any sysadmins out there who have, at one time or another, set up/maintained mail servers for members of the U.S. Congress? If so, what were/are your experiences? Did you have filters which identified postal addresses belonging to the congressperson's district? Any interesting tidbits about the setup?
And again, send a letter on paper if you can (of course, by the time it gets there, it may already be too late). Barring that, send a fax; the aclu website lets you fax your rep for free, with just a few clicks.
Go to any State Party headquarters. Ask to speak with the Executive Director because you've got $25,000 to donate to the state party, if only you could speak to Sen. Y or Rep. X.. They can't and won't guarantee you'll speek to them, but they can get you tickets to fund raising dinners where you'll sit at a table with Sen. Y or Rep. X. The tickets to the dinner/fund raiser may cost you another $15k, but they'll feign listening to you for at least one meal.
Don't beleive me????? Ask the same Executive director what their operating budget is for the year and where did they get allllll that $$$$$$$$.
I wrote my first political opinion paper recently.
I found my specific three representatives' names, email addresses, and postal addresses. In case you were asleep in Civics classes, that's one Congressperson in the House of Representatives that hails from your district (area) of your home state, and two Senators who hail from your home state. I also found the same information for George Bush, the President.
I wrote my letter, which you can read at http://www.halley.cc/ed/politics/. A fair first letter; the only thing I would have changed would be to specifically reference the bill number . The features of the letter:
I got printed letters back which stated each representative's viewpoints on the exact matter (and that the issue had not yet been sent from the Congress to the Senate). The Congressperson stated how they voted and why. The Senators described their current rationale on the issue.
While the letters did not contain any quotes or specific references to my own letter, they were appropos to my opinions, very articulate, very on-point and organized. I imagine that these were cranked out form letters, but in that case, they must have a very well-tuned library of form letters on each subject that they were addressing in their representative works.
I have not heard from GWB's office on this matter.
[
The fact that they "pay more attention" to handwritten letters just shows how absolutely out of touch these people are.
Of course they can't keep up with email, that's absurd. They can't keep up with snail mail. "Oh, now it's too easy for my constituents to get in touch with me". Bullshit. This overlooks the real problem: YOU HAVE TOO MANY CONSTITUENTS. 1:50,000 I believe, was the original ratio.
However, how damn hard would it be for each representative to have a web page with a questionaire to gage their constituents opinions on bills that are on the floor? Then all they would have to do is check the report.
There is the problem of ballot stuffing to work out, but neither snail nor email is immune to that either.
That said, the real problem is, of course, that they don't give a flying fuck anyway, so the whole point is moot.
Gun Owners have been doing the same thing for a bunch of years now, Email is useless to politicians, some legislators direct their email into the kill file without even reading it, just autoresponding with the form-letter-du-jour.
Calling is almost as bad, I have been hung up on by my esteemed senators aides (never got to talk to Queen Hillary of course, I am after all just a peon).
Nope, there is no real way to corner them and get your ideas across or to pin them down and force an answer out of the scum that infest Washington.
Money
Money
Money
Maybe if we say that a few more times, it will sink in. I had a friend who was a senior foriegn policy advisor in the office of one of the Florida Senators, and we talked about constituent mail one day. She said they usually put the lowest/newest intern on the mail answering duty, and the contents of the mail never trickle up past that person.
I asked her, that person doesn't give a report or something at the end of the day? Nope. do you even keep a tally of where people stand? Nope. Does it matter if the writers are actually constituents or not? Nope.
She said most people who write in are nuts, and they just don't care about them at all.
They do write back to everyone, but wake up: Patrick Leahy is not writing back to you, an 18 year old that just moved to DC from Vermont is.
If you want to have any impact on legislation, there is only one thing they listen to: money. Unless you can get a big enough group, say 1 million people, to all go to the capital on the same day...
-Mike
PS I lost a lot of confidence in our government that day.
How would ex-VP Dan Quayle have scored on this test? or G.W. Bush?
This theory looks sound in writing, but it doesn't apply to all real-world situations. I think it's much less than 80% accurate, when you weigh in such factors as geography, gender and race.
From what I have read, most economists and sociologists state that the best predictor of future income is the income of one's parents during childhood.
----------------
"Against stupidity, the gods themselves contend in vain." - Schiller
Try getting a response from Trent Lott... Somebody that doesn't give rat's ass about his constituents, except for the fact that he gets re-elected for another term.
Go to your district office, or better yet, the DC office, IN PERSON. You'll get heard. VERY few people will bother, and the ones that do, count
-- 73 de KG2V For the Children - RKBA! "You are what you do when it counts" - the Masso
Have you considered writing into the opinon section of your local newspaper? That might just get the job done.
Say your senator has 50,000 people to represent and he/she get's 500 letters (e-mail or otherwise) speaking against an issue. Will they really care all that much? Especially when the "national concensus" is to say the hell with rights, because we need more security.
If you could get something printed in your local newspapers, it might give the other voters something to think about. In turn they might just call or write the senator too.
Our elected representatives need to learn to not simply "go with the flow", and realize that what the nation thinks doesn't count. It's the opinions of people in their state that matter the most.
I sent a couple e-mails to California senetors, and the replies led me to belive that they wanted me to re-post through their web-form.
Are they now sending traditional e-mail to the bit-bucket?
Is it convenience, or is it because a web connection is more tracable (not really a conspiracy theory, but why *not* e-mail?).
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I worked in the political process a decade ago developing "Consituent Managment Systems" to log, and respond to correspondence and calls from the field. I can say, they do listen, and do review their own statistics on responses from the field.
They do not however have an unlimited budget to engage in endless dialog and debate with every vocal person in their district. Nor would I support raising taxes to give them that budget.
All that they really use the public responses for generally is determining how many people feel a certain way about an issue. Most likely, all that happens to your emails is that an aide glances at them to see what they are about and if they are for or against whatever that is, and then another tally mark is made on a list.
If you really want to have a conversation with representatives, go to town hall meetings, which many of them hold, or try donating money and going to fundraisers.
in a subtle way mention to your rep. that you're an exotic dancer and you'd like to privately discuss certain matters. i guarantee that you will be granted an appointment immediately.
I've received replies from the offices of Tom Harkin and Jim Leach in response to emailed letters. The responses were, of course, generated by aides, but they were on topic.
In the past when I've sent email expressing my opinion on a given topic, I normally receive a letter via snail mail a few months later. You may get a generic email response right away, but you'll probably get real mail later. In the letter your representative or senator will tell you what side they stand on and why.
-Chris
I hate to break it to you all but when a feedback loop isn't working it is called feed-forward. It is known to be more unstable.
Obviously the system the US has doesn't work because there is no space for nuances in the voting process. This works great if the problems are simple. It halts to a grind if complex problems come around. If not all data is around to make a simple decision, irrational decisions are made. Simple group-dynamics...
nosig today
"The course of history shows that as a government grows, liberty
decreases." (Thomas Jefferson)
"The word politics is derived from the words "poly" meaning many and
"ticks" meaning blood sucking parasites" (Anonymous)
"The only idea they have ever manifested as to what is a government
of consent, is this --- that it is one to which everybody must
consent, or be shot." (Lysander Spooner)
"They that give up essential liberty to obtain temporary safety,
deserve neither liberty nor safety." (Ben Franklin)
"Government is not reason, it is not eloquence, it is force"
(George Washington)
"A society of sheep must in time beget a government of wolves"
(Juvenal)
"The ideal tyranny is that which is ignorantly self-administered
by its victims. The most perfect slaves are, therefore, those which
blissfully and unawaredly enslave themselves" (Dresden James)
"In free governments, the rulers are the servants, and the people
their superiors and sovereigns. For the former, therefore, to return
among the latter is not to degrade but to promote them"
(Ben Franklin)
"A congressman is a pig. The only way to get his snout from the trough
is to rap it sharply with a stick" (Henry Adams)
"Arms discourage and keep the invader and plunderer in awe and
preserve order in the world as well as property. Horrid mischief
would ensue where the law abiding deprived the use of them."
(Thomas Paine)
"The urge to save humanity is almost always a false front for the urge
to rule" (Menken)
"The right to be left alone...the right most valued by civilized men"
(Louis Brandeis)
"Sooner or later all politicians die swallowing their own lies"
(Claire Luce)
"Patriotism means to stand by the country. It does not mean to
stand by the president or any public official, save exactly to the
degree he himself stands by the country." (Theodore Roosevelt)
"Does the government fear us? Or do we fear the government?
When the people fear the government, tyranny has found victory.
The federal government is our servant, not our master!"
(Thomas Jefferson)
"Their nature...is to argue and procrastinate, yet we persist
in electing lawyers to Congress" (Ben Franklin)
"Liberals can understand everything but people who
don't understand them" (Lenny Bruce)
"Most stupid people are conservative, but not all conservatives
are stupid" (John Stuart Mill)
"For my part, whatever anguish of spirit it may cost, I am willing
to know the whole truth, to know the worst, and prepare for it.
(Patrick Henry)
"Our acts of liberty are our strongest propaganda"
(Paul Goodman)
"Americans are so enamoured of equality they would rather be equal
in slavery than unequal in freedom" (Alexis de Tocqueville)
"Education - compulsory schooling, compulsory learning - is a tyranny
and a crime against the human mind and spirit. Let all those escape
it who can, any way they can" (John Holt)
"To know what you prefer, instead of humbly saying Amen to what the
world tells you you ought to prefer, is to have kept your soul alive"
(Robert Louis Stevenson)
"There is no such thing as a majority right. Only those who understand
and act according to this principle can promote true freedom"
(Harry H. Hoiles)
"The hardest thing in the world to understand is the income tax"
(Albert Einstein)
"Democracy is a form of religion, it is the worship of jackals by
jack asses" (H. L. Menken)
"Peace, commerce, and honest freindship with all nations - entangling
alliances with none" (Thomas Jefferson)
"Government at its best is a necessary evil, and at it's worst an
intolerant one" (Thomas Paine)
"No freeman shall ever be debarred the use of arms."
(Thomas Jefferson, proposal Virginia Constitution, June 1776)
"That the said Constitution shall never be construed to authorize
Congress to infringe the just liberty of the press or the rights of
conscience; or to prevent the people of the United states who are
peaceable citizens from keeping their own arms..." (Samuel Adams)
"I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your
right to say it" (Voltaire)
"You need only reflect that one of the best ways to get yourself a
reputation as a dangerous citizen these days is to go about repeating
the very phrases which our founding fathers used in their struggle
for independence." (C. A. Beard)
I think politicians around the world should wake up and realise that they are our servants. They are our slaves, 'bitches', whatever you want to call them, and they work for _us_. We pay their wages, _we_ tell them what to do. They're not put there to go around posh dinners, openings, and PR opportunities, they are there to listen to what the people want and to make decisions based on that. While in office, they should not have the privacy to be taking bribes from people and they should not be in the position to be able to make major decisions on their own. Thats MHO.
This comment does not represent the views or opinions of the user.
Short of personal, face-to-face contact, (so they can at least lie to your face) Are irrelevant. I will tell you why. :P
I wrote a couple letters to my Rep. and senator about the disclosure project. (www.disclosure.org). I told them both flat out in the letters that if they couldn't bother with a letter that at least MENTIONED the issue that I wrote about, DO NOT write me back with a generic form letter. I said that for two reasons... One, to save the costs of snail mail back to me in event of a generic reply. (which I told them in the letter) Two, to see if they'd read/listen. My Senator did not.
Two weeks later, it might as well have been a message on hold... "your letter is important to us... please hold while we continue to ignore it."
Oh, and of course, my representative resigned the same week. I get to write to his replacement whenever we get him elected.
But back to the subject at hand, I have heard more than one senator's aide say flat out they delete all email because they don't have time for the sheer bulk.
I used to write to my congressman regularly, and regularly I got thoughtful replies from him. I wrote on paper, kept it short, and was polite. Of course, my congressman was Dan Rostenkowski, an old-time politician from the days when personal contact mattered more than (expensive) media outreach.
Of course, the politicians are just reflect the political culture created by we the people; as H. L. Mencken noted, "Democracy is the theory of government that states that the majority knows what it wants and deserves to get it good and hard."
1. you'll get an e-mail autoresponse...
it's a polite thing with "Bob is busy, but still reads all your messages" and is sometimes augmented with "the terrorist attacks on Sept 11 were horrible" or "I intend to level-headedly go through the impeachment process", etc...
2. You'll get a letter that is made up of canned and semi-canned phrases and paragraphs that directly responds to your e-mail/letter/phone call/visit
3. ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS augment an e-mail with at least a phone call.....and when the your representative/senator has voted, call to express your dismay/delight at his/her decision. And finally, if it's really important, send an e-mail first....write a letter if you can get it in, and make phone calls to the DC office and/or your local office as it gets close to a vote. Finally, if it's REALLY important, make a visit to your local office and express your concerns IN ADDITION to a combination of the aforementioned things....
"Of course, the impression I got after all of this, was that if I couldn't vote against them in an upcoming election, they didn't care about my opinion."
I don't think you understand the point of representative government. The reason why states send their own representatives is so that those representatives can express the opinions of their individual states. It's not some cold, heartless disregard for the American people, but rather a dedication to the people they represent. Wouldn't it be more of a problem if they ignored their constituents and instead listened to the most numerous stream of letters?
120 characters isn't enough to explain it.
First, if they are not your representative (ie.. you can't vote for them) then your opinion doesn't matter. They are there to represent their constituents.
;-)
Second, I find that polite snail mails are often more effective than e-mail. Simply because they know that the effort behind snail mail shows that someone is really concerned and, didn't decide to spam all the reps with the same email. It also helps to not send a pre-wriiten mail like many people do and to be very specific about your concerns.
Also, don't neglect the aides and advisors to your reprentative. You can be very effective if you write them directly (an actual paper letter, wow) as they don't receive as much mail, and explain your view point.
These are just things that I have found to be effective.
Of course, don't forget to provide a list of all the organizations you are a member of (for clout)
Is Your Elected Official Really Listening?
No, but the Feds are.
There is no longer anything that can be done with computers that is nontrivial and clearly legal. -- Paul Phillips
Right now they're very busy. Try going to the office of a Rep you're a constituent of with a check for $10,000. You'll probably do lunch.
"You must try to forget all you have learned. You must begin to dream." -- Sherwood Anderson
Write a letter, print it, sign it. Drop by a post office and have it mailed with certified mail so they have to sign for it upon receipt. I have been told this is the best way to communicate.
Mark
In college, I've always been heavily involved with my second love: politics. And, as a result, I had the fortunate experience last semester to be intern in a Senate office.
Here are my tips. Trust me on these.
1) As it has been widely stated: Do not e-mail. The Senate e-mail system is a mess and offices are ill-equipped to reply to them in any sort of organized fashion. Take the time to put it on paper.
2) Know that your letter will doubtfully ever be on your senator or representative's desk. There are federally funded offices whose only purpose is to handle constituent correspondence. Expect a form letter. These people are swamped and cannot hope to take the time to write a personally crafted paper in direct response to every letter they receive. In addition, these people are speaking for the congressperson, so you're very likely to get mushy and uncommitted policy stances as the writers have no desire to get their bosses into hot water.
3) Strength in numbers. My strongest advice is this: get a group together and schedule a meeting. This is your best chance to actually get a hold of the congressman's ear for any amount of time. Find locals with similar interests, form an organization, and ask to schedule a meeting. Then, discuss with the congressman your situation in the simplest terms possible. Don't expect them the be well versed in technology issues; they won't be.
Finally, avoid "astroturf organizing." Strength in numbers does not mean form letters. Politicians (and staffers) are rarely swayed by simulated constituent groundswells obviously crafted for the sole purpose of putting on the appearance of heavy support for an issue. Staffers do read the letters and know when five hundred of them have the same wording. No form letter can compete with the legitimacy of a personally written letter.
I hope this helps. Good luck.
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intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
People are always wondering if their representatives hear them. They do - to varying degrees. E-mail has the least effect. The reason? Spam.
There are uncountable web sites out there which will forward your comments/opinions to Washington. What they also do, is send it to the other 532 congressmen as well. The result? 3 legit messages and 532 spam. Every congressman gets similar floods of e-mail. The signal-to-noise ratio of e-mail makes it very easy to ignore.
Your canned, predigested reply comes from the office e-mail filter or autoresponder. Its not surprising. What do you do with your spam?
The same is true of those pre-printed post cards. They are passed out at shopping malls across the country. They are postage paid, pre-printed cards which say "I'm oppoed to..." or "I'm in favor of..." Some offices have contacted people who signed the cards to see if they really know what they were or not. Some did. Most didn't.
Telephone calls are only slightly more influential. Unless you know the appropriate staffer in an office, you'll end up talking to a front desk receptionist. He'll say "uh huh" every so often. In the end, he will put a mark on a tally sheet under "for" or "against" if he can figure out what you are talking about.
If you are going to call your congressman's office, don't just launch into your speech. Ask to talk to the staffer responsible for the issue you want to discuss. At least there's a chance he will know what you are talking about.
Better yet is a letter. Snail mail. Dead trees. Typed.
If nothing else, your letter will be read by at least two different people in the office. Yes, the first one is a mail room intern. His job is to put you letter in the right in box. Still, if its interesting and makes a good point, he'll talk about it to the rest of the staff. The second person is the staffer responsible for that issue. He will read your letter. If its coherent and makes a point, then it might have an effect. If its just insulting and obnoxious, it will end up in file 13.
Better yet would be to engage your rep in person in a "town hall" meeting. Most representatives have them back in their district every once in a while - some more oftn than others. There are almost always press there as well. Stand up, make your point - briefly - and ask your congressman's opinion. If you launch into a speech, you'll just get boo'ed out of the building. You can make your point briefly. If nothing else, you will have everyone's undivided attention for a minute or two. Sometimes that's all it takes.
Never mind that, be sure to investigate our big URL giveaway (includes a year's free hosting on one of our dependable/secure linus boxes), so you might have a place to hang your hack, in case the good GNUs guys, win one.
fud is dead? i DOWt it.
They made up a student association at our U. and called on behalf of it. They faxed a message (on university letterhead) inviting the representative to come and discuss the issue with their organisation; of course, he didn't, but he certainly answered all of their mail.
Of course, they could have accomplished the same thing by joining CalPIRG; but, on one level, ten organisations with one tenth the membership seem bigger than one organisation of everybody.
So, everybody who cares on slashdot (I live in Manhattan) start faxing letters around to everybody in your district, and send in a single copy, with everyone's signature on it. Or, have everybody call on behalf of the organisation. This is what the christian right does, and it works fairly well - they heavily influence (even liberal) representatives in their districts. So, where nerds are concentated (in the NE and West Coast, I've always assumed - take a look at those graphic representations of world computer traffic from a few days ago) we ought to be able to form a political force - if we could 1. agree on anything and 2. form local political organisations on that basis.
The good and new comes from no quarter where it is looked for, and is always something different from what is expected.
Here are some facts.
A congressman has about 7 staffers.
A congressman has about 700,000 people in his district.
If you want to get attention, send a standard letter. You are likely to get a good response.
The congressman himself isn't the person you want to talk to - you want to talk to his legislative aide who covers the area you are concerned about.
While a trip all the way to Washington is a good way to get your voice heard, you can also set an appointment up at your congressman's district office to make your message heard.
When contacting the office, always say FIRST that you are in his district.
The best way to make your voice heard is to join an organization with people of similar minds that has representation in Washington. Just like lawyers in a court of law, these organizations have experienced lobyists who know best how to make your case on your behalf to the representative.
If you're not registered to vote and/or don't vote often, the member of congress has access to that information. Be active.
Take advantage of what little representation you might have. Here in DC, we have only a single 'non-voting delegate.' No reps and no senators -- and guess who controls our budget? We're basically Congress' bitch.
Anyway, back to the matter at hand -- if I had someone to write to, I would.
Vintage computer games and RPG books available. Email me if you're interested.
Read this for an insider's view of things: http://www.yourcongress.com/section.asp?section=Wr ite_Or_Call
Of course I send them to my representatives. In the state of Oregon, I am stuck with Sen. Wyden (D- Ore) and Sen. Smith (R- Ore)and am represented by Rep David Wu (D- Ore) in the house. I write one of them at least every month on topics ranging from the environment, SPAM, technology issues, and many others.
Every time I have gotten a response from one of them. Why would you expect a response from a representative of another area anyway ? It is not their job to represent your views in congress, but those of their constituents.
So, I stopped arguing with her. I drove my car to the nearest Blockbuster and rented the excellent "In the Name of the Father", a real story where innocent Irish people are abused by British officers under a brand new anti-terrorist act. I got my point.
[... Movie Spoiler: 4 innocent Irish people spent 15 years in British prisons before being able to defend themselves again in front of a tribunal and having their case dismissed. One of them had half of his family put in jail with him, with jail time up to 14 years. His dad actually died in jail...]
Easy way to find your elected officials http://capwiz.com/aarp/dbq/officials/
Of course, the impression I got after all of this, was that if I couldn't vote against them in an upcoming election, they didn't care about my opinion.
Of course they are not interested about your opinion, why should they be? Our system is one of representation. These officials are Representatives and are supposed to act in accordance with the wishes of their constituents. They do not represent you, so really there is no reason for them to be concerned with your wishes.
The only time you can expect a representative to listen is if you are a voter in their district or you are a corporation. This is how a Republic works, and a Republic is what the US is.
Marvin
Of course, the impression I got after all of this, was that if I couldn't vote against them in an upcoming election, they didn't care about my opinion.
As it should be. I don't want to elect someone to represent you ... I want to elect someone to represent me .
dennis
Anybody can cut&paste some text. (Or take time to compose a thoughtful note--doesn't matter since no ones going to read it anyway.) Then it only takes a mouse click to send.
It may make you feel good but you are wasting your time.
If you really feel that strongly about an issue, print out your message, put it in an envelope, address, put a stamp on it mail it!
Otherwise, don't waste your time. They certainly are not going to wast their on email.
I'll also note that these letters are almost always informative, and explain the senators views about what you asked about, how he/she has voted in the past, etc. OBVIOUSLY these letters are almost always prewritten or the same for all who inquirer about a certain bill/subject/etc. Can you imagine individually writing all those letters? If you want to know more than the basics about how they feel about something, then your best bet is to try to arrange a meeting with them. They are not unreachable, and if you know a veteran or something, you definetly have a good chance at meeting them (at least when they aren't in session).
What?
Sure he or she is, just not to us, unless you happen to be a corporate lobbyist or soft dollar distributor. Lets face it the PRIMARY goal of any elected official these days is fundraiser for the party.
errr....umm...*whooosh* *whoosh* Is this thing on ?
Snail-mail has the volume advantage over e-mail since snail-mail may be in a smaller volume but.....e-mail used correctly and even with spam mixed in can be more effective. Imagine this....
...
People are concerned about an issue WTC, DMCA, etc they would include key points and acronymns so that an email client with google-like search capabilities would allow our fellow congressman a easy source of research on what his people really think. Now this could be exploited to some degree by people mail bombing the senator with their issue so it shows the most hits but...if our leaders had a registered e-mail address to tie with each voter registration then the e-mail search could filter based on only voters in that reps state. And example could be like this....
Total Hits | Distinct Hits | Topic
200302 30020 DCMA
Results by Post Date grouped by Poster:
E-mail | Posts | Total Posts | Most Recent Post
joe@home 3 29 DCMA is bad
john@home 1 1 DCMA is good
jolynn@home 4 292 DCMA is a
Where posts is posts found matching the searched for topic, text, etc and Total Posts is the total posts created by that user. Provided exploits are avoided by limiting post to one per user per day and filtering out posts that come from many users from a single IP range that isn't consistant with IP ranges from which their previous posts came you could make an effetive communication platform that could be managed effectively by a small staff. What does every body think.
I also have sent emails to my congressmen. Thus far I have recieved a form letter from onr of my Reps and nothing at all from Orin Hatch, my Senator. My coorespondence with them was consistant in decrying the attacks, but asking that they not activly remove freedoms from us as a result of the attacks. While my emails have been effectivly ignored I intend to send letters that are word for word to my emails just to see what the result becomes. I do know that Orin Hatch seems to respond better to letters than email.
it is better to light a flame thrower than curse the darkness. -Terry Pratchett Men at Arms
The most effective way of communictaing with your Rep or Senator is to meet with them personally. If your Member of Congress holds office hours or town hall meetings, attend the meeting. Be prepared with rational questions. Do not launch into a diatribe or attack on a position. Present a reasoned analysis of why you may disagree with you Rep. Provide eveidence which backs up your position. The key here is that Congressional folk are constantly beset by irrational people. If you do not present a professional manner, you will be dismissed out of hand.
/. over the years. E-mail is the worst way to communicate with Congress. Congress is simply overwhelmed with e-mail. A good rule of thumb in lobbying your elected officials is the easier it is to send a message, the more likely it is to be ignored. Do not inundate your official with mail. the worst thing you can do is write a letter a week or more. Congressional offices receive tens of thousands of pieces of mail every week. The more mail you send, the more likely your mail is to be buried. Each piece of constituent mail is entered into a database as it is processed. If your name and address shows up a hundred times, you will recieve a low priority of response.
If you cannot meet with your elected Rep, do meet with their staffer. Elected officials keep District and State offices. They have staffers who brief them on issues. Be prepared for your meeting with a letter addressed to the official outlining your concerns. Bring any supporting docs. It is important to have your concerns in writing when meeting with staff, they have very limited time and will likely appreciate any effort which makes their job easier.
If you cannot meet with staff. WRITE A LETTER!!! DO NOT USE E-MAIL. I have stated this several times on
The most important thing is be patient. Congress is under extreme pressure right now. Mail is up and phones are ringing off the hook. Every constituent has become an expert in counter-terrorism. I would give your official 4 to 6 weeks to respond. While this may seem like a long time, realize the logistical problems of responding to the sheer volume of requests these offices are handling.
If you have not received a response in that time period, a follow-up letter or phone call of inquiry to the office is warranted. Again, keep your cool. If this does not shake out a reponse, then you likely will not receive one.
Believe it or not, elected officials who do not at least respond with form letters, tend to not get reelected.
This is not the sig you are looking for...
I have sent emails to my Governor before (incidentally about that video game bill in CT) and I, too, immediately received an automated response back, but then a couple of days later I received a personalized email from one of his aides, thanking me and telling me that they passed on my message to the Governor (because he asked to be informed about praise or slander from the younger generation).
Then several days later they even sent me a copy of the Governor's veto and ANOTHER personalized letter thanking me for my insight. Nothing too big, but it should at least show that politicians, or at least their aides, read their email.
Now I would bet (trying not to sound like a rant) that email from Joe Schmoe who's not from a politician's district was probably read, but not given the attention that you might have wanted.
Try this:
Since your representative is supposed to be REPRESENTING your interests, and you want to speak out against another politician. Why not send a letter to the Rep from YOUR district and urge them to speak out against and/or inform the other politician or perhaps even (what the heck) the whole house?
Who knows? It might just all come together and work the way you'd like it to?
Don't send a couple of emails to the wrong person, and then whine about it when they don't call you up personally.
After all, how does it go?
"Learn the system and THEN f**k the system?"
That's just my 2%
Lather, rinse, repeat.
"Whadda'ya watchin'?"
"Angry Monkey."
"That HORRIBLE monkey."
If enough people write/email/call Congressman X about Issue/Bill/Exec. Order Y, he gets the gist of how his constituents feel, one way or another. You might feel your "boilerplate reply" was insufficient, but writing your Congressman is like voting; one letter might not make much impact, but a couple of thousand letters might make the difference on how your Congressman votes.
Of course, if Corporation Z greases the Congressman's palm enough (through soft money), all bets are off. Here's hoping for campaign finance reform in our lifetimes.
Republicans are idiots.
Luckily, I live in Maryland, so when i have a concern, I can make an appoitment and go visit my representatives. Meeting with them in person while either you're in dc, or they're back home is easily the best way. Who remebers every email you get? I don't, but I'm pretty good about remebering the highlights of actual conversations.
Mod point free since 2001
An average congressional staffer at this time of year works AT LEAST 50 hour weeks for less than a decent wage. Most folks have multiple topics i.e. when I was a staffer I handled responses for Banking, Postal, Commerce, Tech, and some Transportation. An issue like this the mail floods in both snail and email. The goal generally is to get a response turned around in 2 weeks if possible. You try to respond directly to a specific questions and points but it's difficult you get 15,000 letters on the same topic. That being said some members will still reveiw and hand sign every letter (though generally from rural districts).
But think of it in these terms if 15K letters is an average work load in a week (at 50 hrs a week) and you just work on those letters after two weeks it's still 150 letters an hour. Regardless of any work on the legislation that is going on the Hill, keeping up with the budget bills and other bills staff are expected to track.
Not an excuse, just remember, behind those faces on tv and those speeches, there are actual people working their butts off.
My delegate in Virginia knocked on my door one evening and asked me if I had any concerns I would care to share with her. She caught me completely off guard and I wound up saying,"Uh, to be honest, I don't follow state level politics much." She gave me a flyer with her cell phone number and email and said that if I thought of anything, I should feel free to contact her.
I sent her the following email a few weeks later. I haven't heard back.
Ms. Devolites:
You knocked on my door a few weeks ago and met me and
my daughter Melody. I also ran into you at the Oakton
Elementary back to school night yesterday.
When we met at my door, you had asked me what issues I
was concerned about and caught me completely
off-guard. I told you at the time that, in all
honesty, I didn't pay attention to the state
government much.
I have since been thinking about what I should have
asked you about, and what I might have to say about
issues dealt with by the house of delegates that you
might find useful.
I would love to see politicians at all levels carry on
more of a dialog with their constitutents through the
internet, which I think is a greatly underutilised
medium for doing just that.
I visited your campaign website and see that it is
under construction. I have two suggestions for what
you should up there.
The first one is some sort of an on-going log of what
you think the important issues are and what your take
on them is, in some detail. A diary of sorts in which
you give us your take on the issues of the day. Even
if you only wrote a paragraph or so per week, it would
be a vast improvement over what most politicians do to
keep their constitutents informed.
The second one is a forum in which constitutents can
post messages and discuss issues with you and each
other.
I can understand why most politicians haven't done
this. Having an open-ended, detailed discussion via
the web with your constitutents opens you up to much
more criticism than the monthly paragraph or so of one
sided discussion that presently occurs through the
newspapers and broadcast media. On the other hand, it
also opens you up to much more praise and recognition
by your constituents, and would allow you to get to
know your constitutent's concerns to a degree
unprecedented in the past. I think a perfect example
of this is the success Jesse Ventura has had doing
this very thing.
I don't hold out much hope that you will take me up on
my suggestions; I appreciate the risk it would
represent. It completely changes the old, comfortable
rules of how to deal with the media. However, getting
re-elected is never a sure thing and mastering the new
rules could be a powerful way of getting your message
out, if you truly believe that your ideas are a better
match to your constitutents than your opponents.
Good luck in your campaign. It was a pleasure to meet
you and I wish you well.
A while back, I emailed and faxed my congresscritter to express my opposition to a proposed Constitutional amendment that would ban flag burning. Several weeks later I got a snail-mail reply to the effect of "Thanks for writing. I agree that we should outlaw flag burning." !#$!#$%^
U.S. Democracy: born 7/4/1776, died 12/12/2000 R.I.P.
I have on occassion written letters (and sent e-mails) to my local city council, my state government representatives, my governor, my federal representatives (both house and senate), the president, vice-president, secretary of state, secretary of defense, and to local, national, and international news media to voice my concerns.
I always make sure that when communicating with government officials that I only do so with the ones who represent ME. Writing a senator from some other state will get me nowhere (as it should be) as they do not represent me. They should not care what I think unless they represent me.
The only responses I have EVER gotten were from my local city council. All other responses I've received have been automated "thanks for your feedback" messages.
But that's really not the point. I don't care if they communicate back to me. The point of it is to let them know what their constituency thinks and feels on specific topics. They know (because I point out that I am a registered voter and that my vote directly effects them) that I will be watching. If they get the message, they'll do the right thing. Otherwise, I won't vote for them.
They listen to the hand(s) that feed them! If you're Hilary Rosen or Bill Gates, I'll sure bet that you get a personal response. The question really is: do they listen to their constituants, ie: those that elected them? Again I say yes..to Sony, the National Association of Broadcasters, Microsoft, RCA, etc., etc. What people don't understand is that THOSE CORPORATIONS and others are responsible for their being elected!! No Congressman or Senator can get elected these days without television. Television costs LOTS OF MONEY. Anyone who thinks that the people elect them is sadly mistaken. The people only cast the votes. How they vote is determined by what they know about the person, ie: what the candidates' 'spin consultant' wants them to know. They learn about the candidate(s) on television. The bottom line: To get elected to national office you need TV. TV costs money.. The people and corporations that give them the money therefore, are the most important to them. These entities don't give away $$ to be charitable. They EXPECT a good 'bang for their buck'. Until things change, ie: campaign reform, limits on TV advertising and/or free advertising for all candidates, expect nothing to change. Since these laws have to be voted in by CONGRESS, expect NOTHING to change! We have found the enemy and it is us!
Back in my days as a radical right-wing leftist, I wrote dozens and dozens of letters to government officials, ranging from Bill Clinton to Bruce Babbitt (Sec. of the Interior) on a variety of social justice and environmental issues. Real letters, neatly presented, correct grammar, polite, all that stuff -- and what did I receive in response?
From Mr. Clinton's office, I received a very consistent set of form letters signed by a staffer, usually thanking me for expressing support for the President. Of course, they were replying to a letter wherein I'd strongly declared my lack of faith in his leadership. Clearly, they never actually read what I sent -- or if they read it, they didn't want to respond to my actual words.
Back then, I was in Colorado (damn, I miss it), and the best responders were Sen. Ben Campbell (who helped me with some DOI FOIAs), and US Rep. Scott McInnis. Other CongressCritters and the Executive Branch sent form letters that often had nothing to do with the subject of my letter! I'd write about nationalizing the workforce, and "Clinton" would thank me for support NAFTA (which, in its current form, I don't support!)
Ugh. Very disheartening. Which is one reason I stopped lobbying as an individual. Too much work writing a letter for no discernable affect.
All about me
I don't know exactly what he expected. There are 100 senators for 285 MILLION people, in the worst case scenario the two senators from California represent about 34 million people alone. Each representative in the house represents between 600,000 and 700,000 people. On top of the coorespondence that someone representing that huge number of people would normally generate they are also the recipients of continuous organised spamming campaigns hoping to influence them through the sheer volume of spam. The idea being that if congresscritter Alice gets 5,000 letters supporting position X and 6,000 letters supporting position Y Alice will asume that the correct position is Y because it represents the 'will of the people' and not that the supporters of Y had a larger copy machine than the supporters of X.
Email has made the problem much more difficult, now it is so easy that it can be done on impulse. Constituent Bob hears Rush Limbaugh say something about Congresscritter Alice so Bob fires off an email he never would have cared enough about to send as a snailmail. All of the lobbying groups send out email alerts to their 'grass roots' telling them to just cut and past a message into an email to congresscritter Alice - it's so easy that almost every 'concerned' member on the list does so.
So congresscritter Alice with tens of thousands of emails, phone calls and letters to answer every week has not written back to you a personal reply addressing your individual concerns. And she even has the NERVE to think that a hand written note because it was more difficult to send might have meant more to the sender.
I did constituant contact work for a year so I have lots of experience with this. Everyone needs to understand that a politician is concerned with re-election. So the only people that they want to hear from are there individual constituents. Also there are groups out there who send literally THOUSANDS of e-mails a day. I remember having a stack of letters a foot high that each needed a response.
The best advice I have for you to best get you message across is 1) write a real letter and makesure to ask for a response in the body of the leter. 2) go meet your congresperson, they all comehome every weekend and they all have meet and greet events. 3) If ya got it, give it. If you can give money to the campaign or if you have time go work on a campaign - great way to find out if they are getting the message.
Don't get mad at the poor people, realize that a congressperson represents over a million people and they only have a DC staff of mabie ten. (leadership excluded) So please give them time to catch up on the contacts and get involved.
I worked for a congressman. Like the other posters said, we received so many communications from constituents that it was impossible to handle each one. Understandably e-mails are never read because of the frequent abuses of e-mail. Other communications like snail mail and faxes are briefly read. These communications are tallied and presented to the congressman. For example if 5000 separate individuals write unique letters complaining about Microsoft this is identified as something constituents are concerned about that might need addressed. There are very few mails that get personalized responses such as people needing help with IRS problems, etc.
So the moral of this story is if you want your opinion to matter, snail mail a well thought out, typewritten and signed letter to your congressman!
I live in Texas and emailed my House Representative and both Senators and received both a reply email back and a typed letter through snail mail from all three of them. I think it depends on the representatives.
And everyone said Texas was bad . . .
Look,
even the most unknown member of congress gets so much email that it's impossible for them to even begin to manage the incoming load (75-90% of it goes straight into the trash), let alone deal with the subject matter of any incoming message whatsoever. It's just impossible to do in an office with just a handful of staffers (house side anyway, senate staffs are sized according to the size of their state).
Also, congressional offices are clueless about what to do about it and are unwilling to spend the money on people or software to manage incoming email. (This is my business, btw, to sell cong offices email management solutions, and i'm getting out of the market! They're just not ready).
So Bottom line is... if you can type it into an email, print the damn thing out into an envelope. It's STILL the most effective way to influence your congressman; even if you get a canned response, it's often their method of polling their district. Even as few as a hundred physical letters will affect the rep's views and votes, especially on subjects they're clueless or indifferent about, like geek issues!
Better yet, get your local LUG or other geek group to organize a parallel political PAC or citizens group, i.e. "Anywhere USA Technology Action Committee" and come down to DC and VISIT your rep or senators office, or invite him or her to your group for a townhall meeting some Saturday or Sunday on geek issues(they really go for these things... it's the reason they bother to go home on the weekends. if they don't they lose next time. it's a political axiom). There's a 98% chance that they'll be more than willing to come speak and hear your views.
After seeing first hand how over-burdened Senators and their staff are, here's an idea.
How about upping the number of Senators per state to three? That would help take the load off, and each state would still have equal representation in the Senate.
obviously no deficiencies vs. no obvious deficiencies
Just some thoughts from this Anonymous Coward (not so anonymous, if you check the site).
If you aren't motivated enough to put in on paper and stick it in an envelope, why are you surprised your congressman responds in an equaly lazy manner?
Put it on paper. I've never recieved unsatisfactory service from my representative when I do.
E-mail is an easy rant. They get zillions of them from lazy constituents every day.
--
You sure got a purty mouth...
I'd argue that in this particular case, they are listening to the majority of their constituents in that they (the people represented) want tougher measures as to prevent further terrorism acts in the future.
Ironic, isn't it, that in appeasing this majority, the Senate is undermining the very Constitution that is supposed to protect you and I from the Tocqueville's "Tyranny of the Majority?"
I think it may have been in the Federalist Papers that James Madison said, "Measures are too often decided, not according to the rules of justice and the rights of the minor party, but by the superior force of an interested and overbearing majority."
An "effort filter" is a good way to think of it. It's the reason a petition with a certain number of verifiable signatures is much more effective than a letter campaign.
Yeah, I feel your disconnnect buddy.
I've been watching Big Brother grow stronger and stronger in the name of fighting terrorism. Hells bells, I tried submitting an ACLU update calling for urgent action on the freakin Senate bill from hell but even Slashdot didn't get it. It's now passed the Senate, thanks a bunch Malda. A mundane Senator doesn't have a clue. Okay maybe one did.
Posting anonymously to avoid the coming bitchslap.
We can and should individually contact our legislators about issues we feel are important. However, if we don't organize and address problems with the strength of numbers, we're wasting our efforts. Whatever you feel is the issue that must be addressed, join! Join the Electronic Frontier Foundation, the American Civil Liberties Union, or the Open Source Lobby.
Miko O'Sullivan
All you have to do is claim to be a very bad terrorist and say you're going to bomb the SSSCA. That should get their attention and your point across.
because of america's greed with respect to the immigration fiasco.
Now the american sheeple might start to wake up.
Sig:
Navy nuke sub lifestyle?
The problem is 99% of Americans are misinformed and have a very limited knowledge base to make informed decisions on issues. So it's not uneducated reps its uneducated masses. People are generally stupid. Most survive on the inventions/innovations of others. This is why we have such large population explosions in the last 100-200 years (technology & medical improvements).
I felt I didn't have time to snail mail my last letters, since the impression was they planned to vote so quickly on this damn anti-terrorism stuff, so I wrote them out and faxed them. What's the chances those will get seen? I'd like to think it would be better than emailing but not quite as good as a postal letter.
I email my senators frequently and always get snail mail responses, most of the time even addressing specific issues in my letters. They always respond, usually a month or so after the email. One even acknowledged that I'd contacted their office on similar issues before. However, my House representative has not yet responded to anything I've sent him. My previous rep on the other side of the state didn't respond either, except with an autoresponder acknowledging my email.
Still the question here doesn't seem to be how you contact the people, but do they really give a damn and consider your opinion?? I think in the case of the recent anti-terrorism legislature that no matter what their constituency said they had their minds made up.
Most people would die sooner than think; in fact, they do.
Just because you aren't getting any "personal" mail back from your representative doesn't mean they aren't listening. I know several interns who work with big-name congressman whose sole job is to log mail/phone calls/faxes/email/etc. as far as to which position they support. I also can't believe you think that a representative in New England is going to care what someone who SAYS they live in California thinks - the way our system works is that you write YOUR representative.
$45 per U Colocation Special
Let's see... They are swamped in email, so it's unlikely that they will listen to your message if you send it that way. Snailmail is a bit better, but not yet very effective, since they get so many letters.
;P
So what we need is some way to stick out from the crowd. How about...
Printing your message on a shirt and sending it to him?
Sending them a clown singing a telegram to their office? Something about a clown singing DMCA...
Writing it on a card and sending it with flowers?
Finding out where they live and sticking a letter on their front door?
There are many more ways, but those I can think of would probably not be legal
"I remember Y1K, every abacus had to get another bead"
The exception is probably your local governments (city, county, school).
Certainly, I (a school board member) vastly prefer e-mail over snail-mail -- it is much easier to reply to.
And in my experience, this is true for just about everyone I've served with as well as the city officials I have corresponded with.
Of course, YMMV...
Shut up, be happy. The conveniences you demanded are now mandatory. -- Jello Biafra
How about protests? Did they shiver a little at a WTO sized protest? Perhaps a meatspace rally is in order?
Novel theory: Modern Man evolved from psychopath
Maybe if more people wrote, they would start to care. Or if people clued in and started voting these longtime power drunken idiots out of office, they would realize they are supposed to work for the general public, not screw them over.
"You spoony bard!" -Tellah
I am expecting replies from my 2 senators in a couple of weeks.
No matter which one I e-mail. They seem to reply by letter several weeks later. The letter from my representative was written to me about the situation I had e-mailed about. He appreciated the information I supplied and was in agreement on what needed to be done.
Last couple of replies I have received from my senators were similar in scope. When we have disagreed, they have even pointed me to places where information that I did not know about that had information that I had not seen.
The previous representative actually forgot once to send me a reply. When I meat him at some party, he hit his forhead and apologized to me before I could even ask him as he remembered my name, face, and the e-mail. We had a very pleasant talk about the issue. I was amazed as I had only met him once before.
I guess the morals are:
"I want to know God's thoughts...The rest are details." Albert Einstein
I looked up my representative, Lamar Smith, and sent him an email that contained my views, and urged him to reconsider. Being the chairman of some Crime subcommittee that introduced legislation restricting our rights to help track terrorists, I thought perhaps he would be more responsive than just Joe Representative, because he was involved directly in authoring the bill.
I got the form letter back in the mail, hand stamped by a staff member in congressional ink, woohoo! The letter described how aggressively he's fighting terrorism in the only way he can, and how my vote matters. Blahblahblah. They didn't even read my email, and if they did, they certainly didn't think to send me the consolation letter rather than the patriotic/unthinkingly aggressive letter.
I'll be sending my correspondence by handwritten mail from now on.
Any connection between your reality and mine is purely coincidental.
When I was eight years old, I decided that the "war on drugs" that Bush 1.0 was continuing at the time was too dangerous for people to fight. I mean, what if someone got shot? So I went to my dad's office, sat down at his computer (286 running WordPerfect for DOS), and wrote a one-page essay to him. In it, I suggested that we use robots to capture drug-runners instead of the police.
I was thorough. I sent blueprints with the letter. In crayon.
And he replied. His letter was on-topic, probably written by an aide, but it referred to my letter several times and wasn't a generic piece of crap. It came with an 8.5x11" picture of him, which, when one thinks about it, is probably one of the most ridiculous pieces of memorabilia I have. I was thrilled that he'd reply.
OK, thirteen years later I recognize that he wasn't the world's greatest president (I'd rate Reagan and Bush 2.0 higher), but it's still neat that he responded.
MORAL OF THE STORY: If an 8-year-old using substandard computer equipment and a crayon can write to the "Leader of the Free World" and get a halfway intelligent reply, so can you. What the hell is this article's question even posted for?! Every time this is mentioned, people on Slashdot, beside you, around you, and on top of you are screaming the answer in your ear...let me say it, write, write, Write, WRITE, WRITE WRITE WRITE WRITE WRITE A NORMAL LETTER!
What a normal letter is:
OK, I'm done bitching, you can come out now. :)
Oh yeah, and buy a roll of stamps and some envelopes before you do anything else. The reason why email is so easy is that we can send it fast...and it's a lot easier to say, "I think I'll write a letter" when you have the equipment for sending it right beside you. It's too easy to make an excuse if you don't have the stuff nearby...hehehe...not I'm talking from experience or anything.
There's no sig like this sig anywhere near this sig, so this must be the sig.
Where I grew up, the mayor was also the Junior High librarian. That "representitive of the people" kept telling me to Shush! Bastard...
Waltz, nymph, for quick jigs vex Bud.
you know what happens when people don't feel that they can express themselves? When they feel that their government isn't listening? Bin Laden might be able to give you some hints as to what people do...
Like many other people here, I looked up the addresses of my three "representatives" in Congress and sent each of them a nice long letter printed on fancy paper and everything. Of those three, only one generated a response, and it was the typical "I'll vote for anything that says antiterrorism on it" form letter. It's so nice to know that my concerns about the danger of knee-jerk legislation passing without opposition, regardless of content, were so obviously unfounded...
On the bright side, the next big election is coming up in just over a year. If you don't like what's going on, start taking notes. Find out who is up for re-election next year (everyone in the House and roughly one-third of the Senate) and keep track of how they are voting and what they are saying. When the campaign is in full swing, send out a few letters to the editor, start discussions with your friends and co-workers, etc. The important thing is that you do something and not just sit back and complain when those who are elected to represent you fail to do their job.
No.
Simply stated: no. What constituants say or do has almost no effect on the outcome of any decision.
Why not, you ask?
Legislative Assistants - usually people with strong political beliefs - do all of the work for their Congressman.
There are an average of 5 LAs per Congressman.
Each LA makes an average of only $27,000 per year plus full benefits (and government pension and some tax exemption).
Each LA is responsible for a certain amount of work (just like any other job) per month. LA's do NOT handle constituent letters, Interns do.
Most Congressional offices keep records of "Big Players", i.e. big contributors from their state and district.
On the rare event that an Intern notices something from a Big Player, that something (usually a check or a 'thank you' note) goes to the LOWEST LA IN THE OFFICE.
Interns are responsible for sending response cards and letters to constituents in a timely and orderly fashion.
Interns are responsible for filing constituent letters and cards in their proper place (usually the round file...but sometimes certain letters are kept on file for a month or two).
Hrm...can't think of anything else off of the top of my head, and I have a meeting with my Dean in 20 minutes to discuss my resume. Hopefully I'll become a LAN Administrator at the University I attend...
SMasters
maleboja@ici.net
Was from Senator Ralph Becker of Utah. I wrote him to tell him my concerns on a bill I didn't like, he wrote me back and pretty much said "Don't worry your pretty little head about it, we'll take care of it". Yeah. They're listening to someone but I'm pretty sure it's not us.
Ctimes2
My cube. My friend. My solace. My prison.
I once e-mailed my Senator (Russ Feingold, D-Wisconsin) with regards to the Ashcroft nominations. Even though I was a Republican asking him to vote against his party's preference (which he eventually did) I received a very pleasant reply showing that someone had read my message, at the least (it referenced my note). However, I think it's unreasonable to expect those guys to respond to every message they receive - do you have any idea just how many e-mail they get in a day?
Just my $.02
Corbets
This may already have been said but here are the rules as I have been told:
Always write letters or use the telephone. Email is not weighed heavily because of the low effort perceived to be put into it.
Always communicate through your own representatives first. They all receive so much mail that they pretty much ignore non-constituent communications unless there is some special circumstance.
Write your own letter. Petitions (and especially email petitions) are pretty much weighed evenly with individual letters. Don't use verbatim a sample letter given to you. Remember, they pay attention to how much effort it looks like you put into the communication.
Always (generally) stick to one point in a single communication. Try to present a very short but logical argument for what you are espousing. If you want to discuss two or more topics, send two or more letters.
The best way to communicate, and it takes time, is to volunteer on election campaigns and things like that. You get to meet the candidates (frequently one-on-one) face to face in a situation where they are trying to determine what their consituents concerns are. Donate money. Go to campaign events. Just because they ask for a $200 donation for something does not mean that they won't accept $50 or less; they want attendance at these events. Dress appropriately and behave appropriately; you are more likely to be listened to if you don't look or act like a lunatic or a homeless person.
I hope this helps you in the future.
Congresspersons typically autorespond to emails and send a letter response regarding the specific issue to those persons that have emailed them, given they are constituents. They do not typically personally respond to those living outside their district. I used to be a legislative correspondent in DC, and that's how we did it.
I think I'll stop here.
The point was so the Senate would answer to the states. Once this changed, the states lost most of their power, making the 10th amendment a joke.
Yeah, right.
This is about the Canadian government system, not the US, but the same issues pretty much apply. A few years back, our Canadian government wanted to legislate gun control. Jean Chretien, and the Liberal party were for gun control, with two exceptions. The MP in my riding being one of the exceptions. He decided to go against the party and vote against gun control, that's what his riding wanted him to do. Chretien didn't like him going against the party's stance and ostracized him. He was demoted from his minister of (whatever it was, I forget now) position and the party didn't look too kindly upon him. The people however, commended him.
My point is that many officials feel the need to go with the flow and won't stand up for what thier people really want. Does this rate a bad official? Maybe, but they are looking out for thier own livelyhood. I'm sure many of them would be more than happy to bring up your points, but if it contradicts the party's views then they may be more hesitant.
I'm sad to say, but one of my elected officials sponsored some of these bills. (I didn't vote for him in the last election.) I did my bit and sent emails and snail mail and faxes, but as my rep sponsored the bill, I'm sure he doesn't care.
Folks, I think that what we are seeing through many of these comments, and what my experience has been in the past is that those who research the opinion they wish to express, then write an articulate letter which is shaped by that research, has a better chance of a response than someone who tosses some type of form letter into e-mail or snail-mail.
Respectful debate will always get you further than inarticulate ranting. Or than those silly postcards that some groups pass out.
The SSSCA, (and here, by a weak link, the DMCA) is a good issue to practice these skills on. There are a lot of people and organizations speaking out against it. In fact, my expectation is that the bill isn't going to make it to the floor. But because many are publically drawing the connection between the SSSCA and the DMCA, it is also a good time to get your opinion on the DMCA heard. We may not be able to do anything about it until a case reaches the court system, but you might manage to make your representative think should a similar issue come up in the future.
So, first research. You might want to start here:
http://www.acm.org/usacm/crypto/spaf.pdf
[Yeah, I am aware there are people out there who really don't like Spaf, but his testimony on this issue is well-thought-out, and the type of information that needs to be heard.]
Use google to track down more views (I'm surprised by how quickly google's indexing information on this topic). Read them, then let them ruminate in the back of your mind while you do other work. Then sit down tonight or this weekend and come up with your own expression of the opinions. It can be short and concise--in fact, a short but memorable letter can have a greater effect than a long and wordy one. Send it to YOUR representatives.
Maybe it will be ignored. But you'll end up more educated on a topic you're interested in, and with skills that can be reused. And, if it is ignored, a strong reason to interest yourself in the next election and trot yourself over to the voting booths.
dew
Hi,
:)
In our local LUG, we have been discussing similar topics. We are fortunate to hava some luggers with political experience and they provided to us good guidelines.
Inorder to get the attention of your representatives (yes, this means the ones from your State. Comitee members form other states are much less influentiable), do the following:
-Use snail-mail only.
It is the only really taken seriously. Think, how many people could send an e-mail? How many people would bother to use USPS (snail-mail)?
-Use very polite tone and writting style.
Politics is a bit different from slashdot
-Be clear, go to the point.
Try writting first some drafts and show it to some people. Maybe you are not clear enough. How many pliticians have been through MIT? Most of them are lawyers with no ide on technology (just chek yesterday's CSPAN-s vote, when that guy form Indiana (?) got all his speech against "hackers that come through the electric grids and put in danger the watter damms....". No, it is not a joke. Is real.
-Inform your representative that you are a professional that follows politics that affect your field of work. Sign with something like "John SixPak, Software Engineer, Your City, CA90210"
-State clearly that you vote, that you vote regularly and this matter will affect your vote casting in the next election.
Be very clear and explicit about it. After all, voting is the way to tell politicians if we agree with them or not.
-If you want to be taken extra-seriously, use FedEx or UPS to deliver your letter.
-Last, but not least, urge your friends and colleagues to do the same. This is called "lobbying". And this is what politicians understand. Maybe they pay attention to big-money donnors. But, afterall, if they do not get re-electedby you and your friends, they won't get any money form Washington, DC.
Enjoy
...in House or Senate voting, it seems to me that there's one clear-cut answer:
Run for office, and win.
For those who don't have the time, the means, or the inclination to seek public office, there are other options:
I'd definitely continue to let the folks who have been elected know how you feel, by any/all the ways discussed in this thread.
However, if you don't feel like you're getting the results you'd like from those in power, seek out a political party that DOES agree with your views on the issues you care about, and support them wholeheartedly. Vote for them in even the smallest local elections. Volunteer your time to them if possible. Talk about them to your friends (word of mouth still works surprisingly well, and it doesn't cost more than your time does). And, yeah, contribute to their campaign funds if you can afford to. Spend 5 minutes of time a day that you spend trying to get "FP!" doing something to support the party of your choice. Get involved in the legislative process, while you still can.
My party of choice, if you're curious: these folks. Your mileage may vary, though. Do some research, and find the people who you feel best represent you and your views. Don't be so defeatist about this stuff. There is still time to make a difference, if not on the Anti-Terrorism and Encryption bills (to cite some recent, oft-discussed examples), then on something else that matters to you.
There are a lot of smart, resourceful people who read Slashdot. You guys and gals *can* make a difference.
My last post may have been botched, if it was posted (dun know). so I will restate: Politicians (especially those in legislature) have no concern other than getting votes. Any mail sent to them will get a reply that is automated and typed by some aid which has no concern about your time. I once tried writing the justice department about the blatent injustices preformed by Bail Officers (Bounty Hunters). I got an automated message back. it happens alot -It's all good
Writing and faxing may get a response, as others in this forum have mentioned (user firewort comes to mind). But then again, they may not get anything more than a generic response.
Really want to get noticed? Get your mail answered? Have _access_ ?
Do something revolutionary: get involved. When your Senator or Representative (or candidate, if you don't like your current Member) appears locally, go to the event. Precinct meetings, civic group meetings, open houses, town meetings, etc. Go go go go go to as many as you can.
What you are trying to do is build a relationship over a period of time -- Congressional politics is all about relationships as much as it is about issues. And local relationships are best: as Tip O'Neill said, "All Politics is Local."
Try to talk to them, ask them a question. But, I wouldn't ask anything very complicated at first: they have a lot of hands to shake and babies to kiss, so they won't want (at first) to spend an inordinate amount of time on you.
And, try taking it a step further: volunteer in (re-)election campaigns. Stuff envelopes, make phone calls, be a crowd "filler" for an event. The more you show your face, the more you will be noticed. The more you are noticed, the more access you will have.
It's really that simple. Just be diligent.
The idea of influencing an elected official by writing a letter betrays a common naive notion about the way representative democracy works in general and the way it works in the United States in particular.
The factors that influence a Congressman's or Senator's vote are
what the majority of people in his district think about an issue
how strongly those people feel about an issue
his own informed or uninformed opinion on an issue
the need to co-operate and compromise with his colleagues in order to get his favorite legislation passed or some other bill defeated.
If you want your elected rep's attention, join some organization of like-minded people that can guarantee your rep some votes on election day or some money for his campaign. The president of that organization will have the ear of the representative on a regular basis. You will also find that this president will listen closely to your opinion because he wants your vote in the organization's next election and because he wants you to renew your membership and pay your dues.
If you want to talk directly to your elected representative, get elected president of that organization.
This system makes sense in a crude kind of way because by joining an organization you show you feel strongly enough about an issue to contribute money and attend meetings. It also allows the elected rep to talk to someone who speaks for more than just himself.
As an individual citizen, your influence is properly limited to the vote you cast on election day. If you want more influence, you have to get out from behind the keyboard and hustle a bit.
I sent back a reply which said the following (edited for length)
I got no reply to that. Too bad.Members of Congress and their staff are extremely busy. On issues where they are not taking a leadership role, they probably won't decide how to vote on particular bills until VERY shortly before the vote.
Think about it. The anti-terrorism bill the Senate voted on yesterday was S.1510. That means that since January, there have been at least 1510 bills introduced in the Senate; there are probably more in the House.
Most of those will never be voted on, even in a subcommittee, much less by the entire body. It would be a waste of time for anyone to try to read and form an opinion about all of them. So they prioritize, with "do I need to decide this right now?" as the top issue to be considered.
(Also, lots of bills are extremely long. Maybe someone supports hiring hundreds of new Sky Marshalls and opposes the definition of a computer trespasser. How do they answer your question about whether or not they support a bill including both?)
Also remember that just because they listen to you doesn't mean you're right.
Liza
These opinions are my own. My employer is not aware of them, does not endorse them, and is not responsible for them.
I think it really depends on the Member you're working for. I've interned up on the Hill twice (once on the Senate side for the now-retired Howard Metzenbaum (D-OH), and once for a still-serving House Member (from my original home district in Ohio, also a Dem). Metzenbaum got a lot more mail than the Rep did, which only makes sense since he represented all of the State as opposed to a district of about 500,000 (a bit smaller then the average district size, I know).
Both treated issue mail the same way though. Mail was sorted and prioritized in the following order, from highest to lowest, in both offices (more or less).
1.) On-topic mail from constituents (for the Senator, from any Ohio resident, for the Rep, from district residents). "On-topic" mail translates to snail mail, either handwritten or typed, that clearly states the bill number (the official bill name is also helpful in routing the mail to the right staff member). "Constituents" also includes businesses and interest groups based in the district or State.
2.) On-topic e-mail from constituents (which was printed out) (though Metzenbaum retired before the full advent of e-mail contact with constituents, so this is based on the Rep's policy).
3.) On-topic mail from non-constituent interest groups (NRA, ACLU, U.S. Chamber of Commerce, etc.)
4.) "Non-specific" mail from constituents. "Non-specific" ranges from letters that refer to issues in general without a direct reference to a bill number or title, e.g., "current U.S. copyright law sucks", to general rants about issues or the Member, e.g., "you take away my right to carry a firearm and I'll bust your ass".
5.) Non-specific e-mail from constituents. We printed these out and made some attempt to categorize them. As with non-specific constituent snail mail, if it's too weird, e.g., "aliens are playing around with my cows at night", "immigrants are responsible for all ills in the country", it gets pitched.
6.) Non-Constituent on-topic mail re: a particular bill sponsored by the Member or being discussed in a committee that the Member belongs too. Forwarded directly on to the appropriate Member (i.e., to the Rep. or Senator that represents the writer - if you live in CA and write a letter to an OH Rep on the Appropriations Committee they don't see it).
7.) Non-Constituent on-topic e-mail - we printed it out and forwarded it to the appropriate Member. This was before e-mail really took off as a general communications medium for Congress (1997 in the Rep's office), so they may automatically forward it or discard it now, due to the sheer volume.
and a special category
8.) "Form" mail, from either constituents or non-constituents. "Form" mail consists of those little ripout cards you get sometimes in the mail from particular interest groups (NRA used to do a lot of these). Form mail from constituents would get logged (i.e., the number of cards on a particular issue would be recorded) and the constituent would get a form letter in response. Form mail from non-constituents is forwarded on to the appropriate member. There's a variation on this where people send in a letter on their own stationary or e-mail with the exact same text, obviously in response to an interest group call to do so. This type of mail, while accorded higher priority than the little cards, was still not taken as seriously as a letter from a constituent that doesn't spout back interest group boilerplate text. So if you get e-mail from EFF telling you to write in about a particular law it's probably a good idea to come up with your own way to phrase things - don't copy and paste.
Issue-related correspondence was never forwarded onto the Member without going through a staffer first. And by the way - even if a letter was marked "Personal" the interns still open it, at least in the offices I worked in. Usually the appointment secretary (equal in influence to the Legislative Director and the Chief of Staff, since they determine who gets facetime with the Member) will do a quick scan through the mail and pick out the really personal stuff (letters from family and close friends), though sometimes they would miss things and we'd get some interesting "background" on the Member.
Besides the interns, Staff eyes are always the first pairs of eyes to see any correspondence on issues. For most issues, the letters were logged (i.e., this many people want you to vote against a bill, this many for the bill; these local businesses for, these local businesses against; these interest groups for, these interest groups against), and each constituent receives the same letter re: each bill or issue (tweaked to make it more on point if necessary if there was anything uniquely personal or important about the original letter or sender - i.e. letters from Boeing's president get a more tailored response then do those from John Q. Public in Seattle). My Members would never see issue-related correspondence unless they specifically asked to see it. In that case, staff would usually give them copies of mail falling within categories 1, 2, and 3. Letters that had personal anecdotes in them, e.g., "my business has had to lay off 20 workers due to the effects of the DMCA", were more likely to be seen by the Member than those that just talked about the issues in general. They're just more interesting to read and they make great fodder for speeches and talking points.
Several things that really impressed me (I had come to Congress under the impression that individual citizens really had little influence on their Member's opinions and votes):
1.) Your opinion DOES matter to them (particularly if you write it yourself, include a personal story about how the law or issue has or would affect you, live in their District or State, and send it via snail mail), even if you're just writing on behalf of yourself. Business letters, particularly from those businesses that employed a LOT of people in the Member's state and district, did get attention (though small businesses were not ignored). Even though it seems unfair, this really makes sense (to me at least), because though businesses often represent only their own interests that are counter to those of the public in general, they employ the people who vote and live in the Member's district or state. And the people who vote and live in the district or State are the people that really matter the most to the Member. (And yes, I know that the Congress represents all of us, even those that don't vote - I'm just telling you what the reality was in the offices I worked in).
2.) Staffers are REALLY important. Members are so busy that unless they have a particular interest or need, they don't have time to research the issues they vote on. Staffers in Congress, like those in the Executive branch, usually determine what the Member sees and what they know. If you really want to talk to the people that are going to put together the position paper the Member reads, call the D.C. office of the Member in question and ask to talk to the staffer in charge of the particular topic or bill. Follow up the call with a snail mail letter.
3.) Effort matters. One of the reasons that snail mail, fairly or not, is given more credence then e-mail is because it's seen as taking more of an effort to write, print out, and send to the Member. Effort, in the Congressional staffer's mind, translates to how much a constituent cares about an issue. If they care enough to send a personally composed letter via snail mail, they REALLY care. E-mail is just too easy to write and send.
4.) If you don't live in the Member's district or State, your opinion will probably have more weight if it's delivered via an interest group - i.e., give money to the interest groups that you support so that they can afford to send or hire lobbyists to make their case to the Member in person. Even though non-constituent correspondence is forwarded onto the appropriate Member, usually that Member will not have much of an impact on the bill in question in the all-important committee process (though this varies according to the Chamber, it's a lot harder for a House Member to get the views of his constituents considered in the drafting process if he's not on the committee that's working on the bill - Senators have a easier time of it - it's just a smaller, more personal, setting). Lobbyists that represent large interest groups with lots of money are really important - it's well worth your while to make sure that the groups who advocate positions that you support can compete with big business.
In closing, I do want to say that I was also impressed with the fact that the Members I worked for (and their staff for that matter) really had a sense of serving and representing the people of their district or State. They really cared about the opinions of the people they represented and worked for. I think their sense of service and responsibility is probably shared among most members of Congress. They're not all cynical power-hungry moneygrubbers up on the Hill.
Tig
The entirety of my problem with the current situation stems from the fact that the United States is becoming, whether we like it or not, a Corporate Republic instead of a Democratic one. Corporations have far more influence over what actually happens here than the average individual, or even group of individuals. Now I am not preaching against big corporations, they do many good things for the country, but that doesn't change the fact that their existance has changed the face of American politics. Not that I have any sort of a solution to the issue, just posting this hoping someone agrees/disagrees has genuine thoughts on the issue.
TV rots your brain!
Bob Maltby
bmaltby@www.answer(NO SPAM)factory.com
I sent what I thought was intelligent, informed, well-thought-out feedback about the SSSCA to Senator Hollings via the form on his web site. I mentioned that I am one of his constituents and a registered member of his political party. A month later, I still haven't heard back from him. Not even a form letter or autoreply.
Moral of the story: Just because your rep has a Web site, doesn't mean he or she is "wired." Next time, chisel some letters into stone tablets. That'll get their attention.
Your fantasies contain the seeds of important concepts.
Our government is run by a small fraction of the population chosen through popular vote. If they govern according to their own views(as they do now), we have a democratic oligarchy. If they figure out the views of their constituents, and govern based on that, we would have a Representative democracy.
We elect people who do not promise to govern according to constituent's views(they may say "interests" instead). If an official wanted to do so, they could poll constituents instead of only giving weight to those with the time to write in.
If that's what we collectively wanted, we could require accurate representation from candidates and elected officials. We don't, and so shouldn't complain when a "representative" governs how THEY see fit and ignores our views. That's the arrangement we've chosen.
www.cgstock.com
I'll bet you'd feel a lot better if you also convinced a bunch of your neighbors not to vote for him as well....
Virg
Donate money to a lobbying organization and have the pros work for you. If the EFF is fighting for your opinion, send them a check. THAT is how the system works. Take advantage of it.
If some clever hacker can figure out how to manipulate the system without spending money*, please post it. And don't just say "vote" because sometimes I'd like to affect the system more than once every 2 years.
(Hey, that gives me an idea...)
Hi, my name is Dave Rhodes. I was a congressman from a little-known state and wasn't allowed to vote myself a pay-raise one year. The bills were piling up, and the cocaine dealers and hookers stopped taking IOUs. My BMW was about to be repossessed and my house in Switzerland was badly in need of repairs before winter set in. I was in real trouble!
Then I got the idea: why not use the office of congressman to make money? So I sent out a mass-mailing to all my constituents, saying:
Soon I was inundated with checks! I was able to pay the hookers and coke dealers again. Then the MPAA lobbyists found out and they raised their payment and I sent out another mass-mailing and soon I had a full-fledged, drag-out, intense bidding war on my hands! My Swiss house's roof got repaired before the first snowfall, and my Beamer is completely paid off now!
I am telling you, this scheme works! Please forward this email about this Great Opportunity to 5 cronies in the House or Senate. Soon we'll all be rich!
As copyright owner of this comment, I authorize everyone to defeat any technological measure which limits access to it.
The main reason they are not listening is because it is really hard to estimate what voters think basing on the pile of snail/e-mails. It's just physically hard to do.
Now what if mass opinion would be delivered to the representative in a simple clear form? What if voter could affect this form through a simple procedure?
Imagine this: instead of sending mail you go to the election office, confirm your identity and got your personal login to the poll system. Then you go to the gov website and enter your yea/nay vote on some particular issue, and probably comment on what can be changed or, better yet, who's opinion (EFF) you support. Then the statistic from your district should be available to you representative. I bet she/he would not mind to look at it.
Sure, you personal feelings still would not be delivered, but at least you point could finally have some effect. And as this system have no obligatory power, there shouldn't be any problem with "no 100% secure transfer of information over interenet"...
Think of writing you Rep as voting in the off season. Obviously people with more money time, etc...
The rule of thumb is 10 letters gets a staffer on the issue.
According to NYPIRG (when I worked there) there is an accepted rule of thumb for what the Rep thinks an issue letter equals in terms of voters. If anyone has these numbers it would be good to post them.
When I wrote in opposition to the DMCA a few years back, my reply rate was about 50%. But in particular, my experience is similar to firewort 's: my home state's Sen. Edwards (or his staff, rather) wrote back a reply thanking me for advocating his position in support of it! I hate having that level of incompetence allegedly representing me!
"My opinions are my own, and I've got *lots* of them!"
Here's the deal. I sent an e-mail about protecting civil liberties in the face of the Sep.11 tragedy to my elected reps in congress:
Senator Patty Murray
Senator Maria Cantwell
Representative Jim McDermott
From Representative Jim McDermott I received no e-mail reply, but I did receive a response in regular mail. This was a form letter concerning racism and America's resolve for justice. It had absolutely no relation to the subject of my original message.
From Senator Patty Murray I received an e-mail expressing concerns about terrorism in America and promising a detailed response via regular mail. That response has not been delivered. Her recent voting record in the Senate however shows that her concerns about civil liberties are not the same as mine.
From Senator Maria Cantwell I received a detailed e-mail response, addressing all of the concerns I mentioned in my e-mail and illustrating what she was currently doing and planned to do about them. Her voting record in the Senate has since followed the in that vein.
When the next election comes around, who do you think won my vote and who lost it? I do not want to communicate with my reps via paper mail, therefore if they or their staff do not read my e-mail and respond in kind I'm not going to vote for them. If my rep sends me a generic response and then votes against my wishes, I will cast my next vote against them. If my rep actually votes as I wish and communicates with me in the manner I choose, I will not only vote for them, but I'll spread the word and try to convince others to do the same.
It may not seem like much power, but it's a damn sight more than many people have.
Where would we be if Wheel had hid her round rock in a cave instead of showing everyone how it rolls?
With all the correspondence these guys get, it sounds like they just need a better way to sift through and summarize the plethora of opinions espressed. Maybe one of you web geniuses could volunteer to write on online polling CGI for these guys. Hell, even Slashcode might be adapted to fill the bill!
My girlfriend is a Legislative Correspondent for her congressman. Here's how it all works.
Most every representative and senator has at least one "Legislative Correspondent". This staffer is responsible for dealing with mail and responding to it.
IF YOU ARE NOT A CONSTITUENT, DON'T EXPECT A RESPONSE. They're not going to waste time/money on you; it's S.O.P. for all congressional offices.
If you are a constituent, your letter/email will be assigned to an issues category and have basic information from it entered into a database (which keeps track of who you are, where you live, what other letters you've sent, basic stuff like that). If a letter exists which addresses your issue, it'll get printed out and sent back to you. If not, either the legislative correspondent will write a letter on it -- which can require a good deal of research -- or, especially if it's an important, popular issue, will have a "Legislative Assistant" write the letter, typically someone who knows more about the particular issue. The new response letter typically will be read by the "Legislative Director", the chief of staff, or even your congressperson.
Once the letter is revised and approved, it will be mailed to you. Some offices reply via email -- if you emailed them; other offices always issue snail mail. Always, always, always include your mailing address in your letter.
In my g/f's office, email has the same status as written letters. I don't know if this is a universal practice. I do know that their email system and database software is universal. It's best to submit your email via your congressperson's web site (http://www.senate.gov/, http://www.house.gov/), because it's easier to get info from it into their database.
Once your letter/email has been responded to, they will file a paper copy of it and that will be that. Whether it has an effect is entirely dependent upon your congressperson's politics, campaign financing interests, and staffers, and upon the political wind, and upon how reasonable and articulate your correspondence is. If you sound crazed at all -- and remember that congressional staffers majored in poly sci, not CS; their passions are not your's -- they'll think you're loony.
An important fact to keep in mind is that some congressional offices have months' worth of backlog. It will take TIME to get a response, especially as there's a lot of mail pouring into the Capitol these days. My g/f's office strives for two weeks turnaround, max, and that's a very good number.
---
Congressional correspondence is important, obviously, but you may be able to be more persuasive by talking with the right legislative assistant. Call up the office, explain to whoever answers the phone that you'd like to talk to the appropriate legislative assistant about your issue, and if the right LA isn't there, leave your phone number. If you take this tact, however, it's very important to know about the issue and to be prepared to talk about it in a reasonable and personable manner. Think soft sell. Be prepared to concede some points. Be prepared to prioritize sub-issues, what's non-negotiable for your vote, why you feel that way, and also what you could live with. Be prepared to demonstrate the ramifications of possible legislation, how it affects you, and how it affects others (especially other constituents). If you're a business leader, or work for a notable employer, or are an influential and/or notable and respected citizen, your voice will carry some impact. If you can be a source of reliable information and input for your congressperson, his/her staffers will be grateful.
Got it?
Good.
-- Jon
I was a U.S. Senate intern this summer. I would say that the best way to be heard by your Senator is to contact the regional office. Your Senator has probably 3-7 regional offices around your state. You can find their addresses on their webpages. Type a letter and snail mail it to your regional office, then fax it as a followup, and then call a live person at the regional office and *keep calling them* until you get a response.
In my office, I checked in all the mail, and we sent it to Washington if it was just a normal letter on some issue we didn't really care about. But if later, they constituent called us about it, we'd check on it for them.
Basically it's hard to be completely heard unless you want to put in the time to keep on the office until they get back to you. And be understanding, they get literally thousands of letters a day, not counting the emails, and it usually takes the office several months to develop a position on an issue. But if you keep calling them enough, they will. And get your friends to call too, so they think lots of people are concerned about it.
Oh, and my name was Monica long before that other one did her thing.
I'm also mystified by this.
I called my Rep in Illinois to protest the financial aid qualifications-- the ones where you can't get federal financial aid if you are convicted of even a minor drug offense.
I actually got on the phone with him after much canoodling, and expressed my dismay that even convicted murderers, rapists, and violent criminals can receive federal financial aid, but a dumb kid who made a mistake has his life ruined by not being able to afford college.
He informed me that he didn't want to "encourage children to take drugs." Then he hung up.
Hello?!? Do we want to encourage our children to be violent criminals, either?
Our representatives don't listen, even if you talk right in their ears.
This question is being phrased as "Do representatives...?" This is as silly as "Do consumers...?" Given that we're individually experimenting here with our own contact attempts to individual reps, what we need is a tracking of results, by rep. Of X contacts by phone | fax | mail | email | Website | personal | other to representative R, Y were responded to personally | by form (appropriately | inappropriately) | not at all and the subsequent position taken by R was possibly influenced | contrary to the position urged in the constituent | non-constituent, contributor | non-contributor communication.
If we can collect the data, we've got folks hereabouts who can mine it, right? The solution is not generic, but respects the individual we're trying to influence | buy | coerce.
"with their freedom lost all virtue lose" - Milton
... under Emporer Davis, so of COURSE my representatives aren't listening. They bulldoze their agenda through with scant regard for voting results. The only way I can reduce my tax burden is by buying just about anything I can from out of state, over the internet. I'm sure writing letters gets results in other states, but in CA, it's a lost cause.
This is my understanding from a friend of mine who used to work as a systems administrator with a unnamed representative with a person in the Senate.
He reads all emails that comes in and states he gets about 100 to 300 emails a day. He then prints out (yes, prints out!) the emails he deems important and hands them to the congressional aides.
The congressional aides review it and if they deem it worthy, they will give it to the Senator, or bring it up in a meeting.
Basically the things he filters for:
1) If the person is not a constitutent in the state, the letter is deleted. So yes, including your address is important. He says more than half of the emails is obtained from people out of the state. They dont want to hear from other people outside the state as they dont care -- you dont vote for them, you cant vote against them, whats the point of wasting time on your email?
2) If it is not relevant (e.g. not about a bill specifically, or a general concern in the state) then it is discarded
3) When more than 10 (rough number) people complain about a similar thing, it seems to generate more attention into the issue/matter and tidbits will most likely be mentioned to the senator.
So with one senator, there is a process where the email is filtered twice (probably a little more than that) so the message that reaches the senator might be diluted a bit.
If you want to complain about bills in states you do not reside in, dont bother, find people in the states to submit your complaint.
In dealing with my Members of Parliament in the four cities I've lived in, along with Cabinet Ministers and the Prime Minister, and some candidates, I've always received more substantive responses from those with the least to lose. The government responds much as members of Congress in the US (as above), while I had over an inch of research and photocopying done for me, gratis, by the staff of an MP of the NDP (our somewhat-leftist party, has never formed government).
Not that this is meant to be news to anyone, but I suppose the closer one gets to power, the more tugging there is on your shirtsleeves and pantlegs (those wanting information or changes to law, etc). Not to mention all the dangerous implements of destruction hanging above your head on really thin, fraying string (your boss, their boss, the next election, the next press conference, etc).
It ends up being a very weird power struggle. Any change to the status quo needs to have a huge force behind it to overcome the apathy and inertia of government, but at the same time this maintains a check and balance against bad, sudden-reaction legislation. Maybe it's not such a bad thing, usually, but in the case of most technology, there simply isn't enough knowledge and understanding. Legislation might come slow or fast, but the mountain of education the legislators need can't be completed in time!
Solution: I have no idea. Which sucks, I like to be able to announce that I have all the best ideas.
I really hope someone mods the parent post up. It's good to know that at least some of the people supposedly representing us really do care.
FWIW, I think expecting a personal reply to everything is impractical, but it's important to know that if you mail them on an issue, your view will count a little. I'm more worried about my representative listening to me than replying to me.
If you disagree, post your argument. (-1, Overrated) isn't your personal censorship tool for views you don't like.
Hold the Presses! Orrin Hatch responds
The much maligned author of the DMCA* actually responded, individually**, by snail mail, to an email I sent.
Approx 1 year ago I sent an email to Orrin Hatch (via the website) about debt relief to HIPC (heavily indebted poor countries). Much to my surprise I recieved an individualized snail mail response that featured, if I recall correctly, two paragraphs. The first paragraph stated that he agreed with my position and that he had just voted for the bill in question (I had not supplied the bill number, but his reply did), and that thanks to his support the bill had passed. This paragraph was surely cut and pasted by the staff member preparing the response.
The second paragraph was a brief, but clearly personalized, reference to my personal experience on the issue and other references I had made in my original email.
The letter closed by inviting my to stay in touch with the Senator.
In short: a wonderfully pleasant surprise.
Notes:
* I was, at the time, a constituent.
** When I say "he responded" I clearly understand that a staffer responded in his name.
I've written and emailed my Missouri representatives about starting an anti-spam law similar to Washington has. I get little to no response and the response that I did get told me it was a good idea but they weren't sure if it would actuall work.
The man who trades freedom for security does not deserve nor will he ever receive either. - Benjamin Franklin
If you genuinely want to get your representatives attention, send snail mail. In my experience, many politician offices largely ignore email but if you take the time to write and send a letter, you will often get a specific response to what you've written.
if they don't follow their platform (what they said to get elected), then don't allow them to be voted in next time. very few people even care to vote (some 20-30%). very few of these actually pay attention to what the representatives actually do while in office. if the average person did, then you can expect your congressman to listen to you when you have something to say (they are trying to ensure job security, ie re-election).
it's as simple as it could possibly be. you can be sure that corporate lobbyists, pay attention because it's their job (why they get salaries). if the people don't take some time for this, things will continue as they have, corporations get their way.
it's not government's fault. it's the people's fault. we don't vote, and we don't pay attention. corporations do. so laws are enacted on their behalf, not ours.
no it's not hard to pay attention. it just takes a little time to get involved. join an organization you believe in. they do the work on the bills they're interested, and get materials from other groups that have done the research on the bills they are interested. soon enough, you know quite a bit, and all you had to do was read. if you don't have the time to read, and help make a better world for yourself, then you should attempt to take the time for your children.
As for email, your representative may be a "technofossil". My representative's email is secret. You can write or fax him, but no email. Probably doesn't want to be overwhelmed. I don't have millions to donate either.
He probably won't listen to me anyway. I wrote a rather unflattering webpage about him at http://cunningham.carlsbad.ca.us/
I still get the same braindead responses back that prove to me that they never bothered to read my letter. (I live in Texas, btw)
It's not enough to bash in heads, you've got to bash in minds. - Captain Hammer
They are called representatives for a reason. I agree with very little of what the Congress and Senate have done for quite some time, on either side of the "aisle", but to dog them for this... Come on, there are plenty of legitimate reasons to bitch and scream.
They are supposed to be responsible only to their constituents. How would some liberal Californian like it if us Nebraskans had influence with their politicians? True, this example would make for a better country, but it's not meant to work that way.
Woody Allen said it: "Seventy percent of success in life is showing up." In this case, more than 70%. Lobbying your representative in person makes much more of a difference than letters or calls to an assistant, who is invariably working his/her butt off to make sure said pol can make the 100s of public events per week. Our organization, along with several others with whom we allied for this purpose, was quite successful using this method (as well as an initiative campaign) to get our measure before the voters.
But, you may ask: "why would he/she listen to me?" If you're on your own, you're right, you may not get much in the way of face time (though you can usually talk to a policy aide). But if you have a few hundred members of your organization, you will get some attention, particularly if you can get some press too. Show that you have a significant number of people who vote with you, and the doors may open a bit more for you.
Relevant to the anti-liberty legislation: it's surely a greased pig that can't be stopped, but there are some lessons for grassroots organizing here. Does the EFF have local chapters? Can one be set up in each city or congressional district? Use this as a means of organizing people like you to write letters in concert, or show up to an office en masse, or hold a protest. The Free-Dmitry protests, while they haven't gotten the US Attorney to back down, were successful in getting Adobe to back down very quickly, and can be extended to future terrorism legislation, or (more importantly) abominations like the SSSCA.
Yes, money talks. But so also does grassroots organizing. If we don't have as much of the former as our opponents (MPAA et al., or Ashcroft) we can make up for it with the latter.
sulli
RTFJ.
The lesson to be derived is that the effectiveness is in inverse proportion to the ease with which it's generated.
For phone calls and letters, it takes a surprisingly small number to cause the representative to take notice. I witnessed this firsthand when a friend of mine in PR organized a letter-and-fax campaign to support a particular design for a public library. Just 50 or so (each uniquely generated by an individual) made the city council members think that a huge groundswell of public opinion was underway.
Wow, I had no idea it was that bad. Anyway, that adds to something the original post said.
if I couldn't vote against them in an upcoming election, they didn't care about my opinion
They said this as if it were a bad thing. Think of it another way. Their job is to represent their constituancy, those people that elect them. If you have no roll in electing them, they are not supposed to care about your opinion. I would be curious to know what the original poster felt about lobbyists or corporate donors who influence elected officials. You cant have it both ways: does the senator from New York represent the people/businesses of New York, or do they represent everyone that bothers to send them some correspondance? I think the answer is simple...
The ivory tower has never had to reach so h
Ok, first, don't bother with the email, unless you're an old friend of the elected official and they know your email address by heart.
..."
Second, get off your duff and write a handwritten letter or, if typed, write a hand P.S. Use legible printing or cursive.
Hand write the envelope. Sure you have that fancy form feed for your printer, but a hand written envelope means it will get opened and read.
Always give your address. If you don't live in their district, find a big town in it, pop up the street map, and make one up. Bingo, you're a constituent. If you appear to live elsewhere, noone will read your letter. Now, this works only if you mail it in their state - but if you are sending email, this will at least mean someone will read it.
Don't go on and on and on. Yes, you're bright, you're intelligent, you're well informed. Noone cares. Instead, keep it short and focussed. If there is a bill number and title, include it.
Personalize the letter. If you met them at the state fair, say so: "Dear Congressman Schitz-Alikhabar, It's been a couple of months since I met you at the state fair, but I wanted to
If you can meet them physically, you will make more of an impression. Coffee things in their district, drop by their house if a neighbor when they're out back gardening and chat over the fence.
Be polite. Yelling never works.
--- Will in Seattle - What are you doing to fight the War?
Comment removed based on user account deletion
.. for just accepting "wartime" as an acceptable reason for reducing your liberty. Kind of like sheep: they'll take care of you, just be good and eat your grass.
Freedoms (partially) regained is not the point: the point is injustice done to citizens under the camouflage of "war". BTW, isn't it nice that we (the US and all nations under their thumb) are now engaged in a "war" that seems to have no end? There is no opponent to defeat, there is no way to know if we've won.
We can expect this type of government "shepherd" attitude for a long while, and the "sheep" will not be able to (or even think to want to) do anything about it.
Lovely.
debest
Look at the tomato! Isn't it sad? He can't dance! Poor tomato!
I think that's a wonderful idea!
The only problem is that if you have the technical compentence to write natural language parsing software, you are probably not going to be on Congressional staff.
Live free or die.
-------
"Every artist is a cannibal, every poet is a thief."
I wrote my congressperson a while back regarding a certain drug bill that congress is pondering. I got a fairly complete response [from Deborah Pryce of Ohio] thanking me for my letter and detailing why "she feels the way she does".. only problem is, I was in Pennsylvania 2 weeks ago and saw a response regarding the same bill that was sent to a friend who lives in New Jersey.. and it was almost exactly the same wording.
Does the government decide on a suggested stance for these people to take and then give them a generic form letter to tailor to their constituency?
-Rylfaeth
You elected official rep has approx 500,000 people they represent. Your senator can have 20 times that amount of people depending on your state. Now here is the truth. While they are busy enough who do you think they are going to respond to.
o I donate a small amount of money to the canidates I support.
o I write or call roughly 4 times per year on various subjects.
o I attend discussions that my rep puts on at local organizations at least 2 per year.
o I have met my senator once and my us rep 5 times ( he recognizes my face anyway ).
o Several times ( twice ) I have personal notes from my rep on subjects, ( detailed and certainly not canned response )
o Four times I have gotten detailed - noncanned subject specific responses from my us senator.
Now with that said there are a couple things you should keep in mind...reality and human behavior.
-I donate money
-I have donated time in the past
-Most of the subjects have been fairly specific.
-You must remember that in the grand scheme of things computer security and encryption is a very,very,very small part of the big picture. There are better things for them to spend there time on.
Lastly,
Democracy is a two way street. Just going out and voting is not enough. Just because you wanted a response does not mean you should get one. Ask yourself this, what have you don't to help your rep/sen lately ?
Congressional staffers apparently consider the effort required to convey a constituent's opinion. Email is easy; it requires little effort and therefore gets less attention than a hand-written or typed message sent by USPO. I'm not suggesting that their behavior is justified, but that's just how I see it working...
Somebody please mod this up. This is totally correct.
to let off some steam, you have to get in the
thick of it. Change the opinion of the
people and the leaders will follow right along.
Letters to the editor do work. I've seen
it many times.
Get involved at your local level and you will
some start to meet your local reps. Help them out
with signs and phone calls and pretty soon
you will be calling them at home to discuss
things. Eventually your chance will come
to have a meaningful discussion with a staff
person who understands your issue and will
educate the elected official.
so that when I do they'll listen to me
Got friends?
I have read several (not all of the posts) under this issue and we have all had different experiences along with some good ideas. Here is my personal experience in dealing with my Wisconsin District 1 representative Paul Ryan over the past several years. Please note: I have not contributed in any way to Ryan's campaign.
Through a professional lobbying service (probably set up by my satellite provider) I sent off two bingo cards concerning HR 2921 & HR3261 to my state rep. Months later from the original sendings (I actually forgot about the issues) form letters came back to me with the standard - yeah, ah ha, OK reply. Nothing further to date on the bills from my rep. In March of 2001 I composed a lenghty email voicing my concerns on Paul's past voting record and what I as a constituent would prefer to see and why. To date no response. In August 2001, I personally met Paul on a summer road show. I was actually the only constituent that met with him. We chatted about the social security system (he's on the SS subcommittee), I mentioned the email sent back in March, which I got a friendly apology. Lastly I mentioned 2 or 3 bills by number that I either wanted him to consider cosponsoring/supporting or give me his position on. After a quick reference on my end to familiarize him with the bill names and issues we chatted on one briefly. He made promises to me to look into and read each bill. I felt kinda good at that point, but did notice neither he nor his local and DC interns took any notes during our conversation. Oh, forgot to mention that before our meeting began I filled in a constituent profile (2 pages, lots of questions - survey style) October 10, I received a thank you for stopping by to meet with me letter. No reference to anything we talked about or issues I filled in on my profile. Between June and September I sent additional emails either directly using Paul's website or through various committe's designed to petition your district representatives. Nothing received on any of them. On October 4th, Paul sent out his local "Road Warrior" intern, David Rossbach, to complete his mobile office project in my town. I met with David and quickly started questioning why I haven't gotten any responses from emails sent from March through now 2001. David very politely advised that they received about 1000 emails/week and that any out of district emails were passed over. I then sparked that I was in the district. Next David mentioned an email problem they were having and that they have fixed it now. Q: What would happen with all my old emails? A: Didn't know
Now Dave was taking notes, and I advised that if Paul is going to have email communications for his constituents he better take it a bit more seriously or eliminate it entirely. I challegned him to get web-enabled. I assured David I would give the new email service a final try. My latest email to Paul Ryan summarized some older issues with him, and challenged him to evolve into an eCongressman if he really wanted to stay in touch with his constituents. Response pending (I'll give him the normal 3 months)
Conclusion:
1) Individual constituents have zero say regardless of medium used
2) Professional lobbyists petitions get you return letters (3 to 6 months wait period)
3) Something is very wrong with my district's communications protocol for constituents
4) My district rep has much more important things on his agenda than my ideas and opinions
Suggestions:
1) Think local - city, village or town
2) Run for local office
3) Learn everything about who you are voting for to represent you (2002 is re-districting time)
Regards
Paul Rzonca
Sen. Barbra Mikulski (Dem, MD) does listen to E-mail, as long as you include your postal address. I've sent notes to her about bills on spam and China's constant relaying and insecurity on the digital front. She returns them via postal mail with general agreement towards the issue.
Unfortunately, my other senator and represenatives don't put in the extra effort. A local news station ran through state and federal represenatives, and found out that our federal represenatives are the worst at getting back to their consituents *NO MATTER WHAT METHOD YOU USE!*
I'm going to reelect Barbra. The remaining incumbants can get tossed.
--
# Canmephians for a better Linux Kernel
$Stalag99{"URL"}="http://stalag99.net";
The whole basis of "innocent until proven guilty", and, for that matter, most of our civil liberties is that we must protect the rights of individuals even when it goes against the will of the majority. Although I agree that things aren't always that simple, and we often need to find a balance between what's good for the majority and the rights of individuals. Still, my point is that just because it may save many lives does not, in and of itself, justify hurting innocent people. It may; just not always.
I know this is hard for /. 'ers to imagine but i've had great success talking to my senator face to face. Mine gives talks at the local university. I stuck around after a talk and followed him out to his car. We had a good 10 to 15 minute conversation. Give it a shot. People are a lot more responsive to faces than they are e-mails.
I wrote one of my state legislators when a bill I didn't like was going through the system. I sent an e-mail and the response was to ask me for my mailing address. I gave it to them, and received a semi-personalized snail mail response. It seemed somewhat generic, but it did address the issue on which I expressed concern. Subsequent visits to the web site indicated that my representative actually voted the way I wanted--but to no avail, he was in the minority and the bill passed his branch.
Emboldened by my previous efforts, I sent the identical message to my representative in the other branch. No response and they voted for the bill. Win some; lose some.
Apparently, of the rich, by the rich, for the rich.
from total strangers right now. After all, NOBODY IS SENDING ANTHRAX IN THE MAIL AT THE MOMENT.
If you enclose ten dollars with your letter, informing them that this is a proportional percentage of your income commensurate with the donations of Microsoft and Dupont et al. If they ignore you, write again and ask for your ten dollars back .
My spouse frequently writes to Carper, Biden and Roth. They always respond, although they usually respond in a manner that reminds me of those audio-animatronic disney puppets.
Delaware is small enough that you can call up the governor on the phone and expect to be able to talk to him if a) it's important and b) you are a Delaware resident. The methods used probably wouldn't scale very well, though.
Come to think of it, a less populated state should work even better. Move to Montana, you can be a dental floss tycoon.
--Charlie
I have found it impossible to keep up on what individual representatives are voting for and against. Are there any online sources that would allow me to see were politicians stand on issues based on their past votes on bills? I have found opensecrets.org that deals with where their money comes from, but that?s only partially helpful.
Just what I want, I country full of uninformed people spending 10 seconds to decide every important issue.
So create some suitable real time trust network or moderation system, where intelligent suggestions and domain 'experts' get more influence. And tune the dynamics so that it doesn't stagnate, and so that differing view points are represented.
Also make it localized, so that citizens can select what to take an interest in, for example local neighbourhood / city / state issues, or issues dealing with their work, free time activities, areas of interest or expertice, etc.
A feedback type process to improve on the voting system itself could also be developed, where the aim is to learn well from mistakes, and improve the system while maintaining some original goals or constitution.
It's not easy to design, and will not be 'just' (but nothing save a single person country could be that), but it might be better than current systems for some things.. At least it is an interesting thought experiment, and something that would be interesting to play around with in an online world or game.
pinkNoise
Folks, this is the god's honest truth. The reason things like this, and DMCA go through so easily is because the people who care about the government and our country (us) are the MINORITY. Most people in America are clueless to what the DMCA is. They couldnt care less about these new terrorism bills - as long as it doesnt affect them! And when Senator Joe stands up during relelection, he can proudly say "I voted to support cracking down on terrorism and illegal computer uses". And the American people buy it. They dont need to read emails - its the ignorant ones they are trying to please.
Example
I was at this fund-raising dinner for a Silicon Valley politician (Mike HOnda). Guys gathered were all tech-savvy people earning big bucks. So the 'donations' for campaign were from 100-1000 (max cap). So when an 'intern' came to collect the check I asked her about his stand on DMCA. She said she doesn't know and she can get back to me. I told her that I need to hear HIS opinions before writing the check and to my surprise HONDA himself came over to talk. He said he doesn't know that much about DMCA and will get back to me. The intern collected my business card (still no check). after about a week (to my surprise) I had this letter from him saying the fairness law is 'strectched' a bit DMCA and he will 'work with others' about this. I don't know if he'd ever do this but I mailed him a check b/c
THis taught me a thing. Here in America if you have money, you can be heard.
God Bless America :-)
The best way to get your point accross is if you get a bunch of like-minded people together, and send in a big envelope with letters pimping whatever cause you're trying to pimp. Calling might get your message passed higher up, but that'll only really happen if a lot of different people call up about it.
Do not go to an office unless you have an appointment (and you probably won't get one unless it's urgent, IE you have an immigration problem or something like that). If you go, you disrupt things, and everyone will laugh at you and call you crazy after you leave the office, and you definately won't get anything done.
I'm a lazy bastard so I don't write congressfolk too much, but when I was in DC a while back I decided to swing by my rep's office. He wasn't in so his aides hooked me up with free gifts, like a DC calendar. Then as I'm leaving he comes back, and although he has to run off to some meeting, he lets me walk him to his meeting and talk on the way. Seeing a congressfolk in person beats every other method since they actually know who you are and can (presumably) see you're not a lunatic, and you can get their feedback on issues immediately. Most importantly, when they're trying to decide how to vote on a certain issue, they'll remember your face and what you talked about. The chances of them remembering a letter are about zero -- no matter how well worded it is, don't forget your letter is competing against thousands of other letters, including some written by professional lobbyists.
What happens if the email is a "praise" email?
Example:
I sent an email yesterday to Feingold in WI. I live in Arizona. The email I sent him was a "good job" type email, and wishing he worked here, and thanking him for his work on behalf of American citizens everywhere.
I included my address, though I doubt I will get any response back (not that I am looking for one).
By your statements, my email got tossed - even though it wasn't a complaint!
Why are our representatives so backward about this stuff. This isn't the future we are talking about, this is the present! It would be like ignoring telephones or faxes (which they apparently still do on the latter).
Reason is the Path to God - Anon
Here is what you need to do:
1. Don't use e-mail: This has been discussed many times before. E-mail campaigns may look a little too contrived, and many not give the staff an idea what the real opinion is. True, a mail campaign can be "astroturf roots," but at least there is a hint of accountability in paper.
2. Stick to *Your* Members of Congress: True, others will listen politely, but, at the end of the day, they have to be reelected. If most of their district has an interest or opion that is unique to them, they respect the man who caters to that.
3. Avoid Blanket Campaigns: If it looks like you have written a 'bot to mail every member of congress, you are more likely to be disregarded.
I know others have posted this, but you have to accept that slashdot isn't like the rest of the word.
I have been emailing my representatives for a at least 3 years now and my experience has been quite nice. What usually happens is that within 24hrs I receive an automated response. Within a week or two I receive an email which is actually addressing my issue. Then within the next month I receive a snail mail letter which goes in depth to the person's feelings on an issue. Sometimes I will also receive copies of speeches and voting records from the representative. One just has to wait a while after communicating.
c# - Wait, it's not pronounced coctothorpe?
Many posters are stating that they either don't hear from their representatives, or they get back form letters - which basically is an acknowledgment of them receiving your letter, but not whether it was read or cared about.
Very few posters have stated they have gotten real non-form letters back. I know on occasion I have gotten ones back, but it has been a rare occasion.
If our representatives are not listening, then do we truely have representation? We are still being taxed, I see that every day. But we seem to have no representation.
I seem to recall something from my history books about a war being fought a while back over "taxation without representation" - or maybe I am mistaken...
That's got to be it - I must be mistaken...
Yeah...
*sob*
Reason is the Path to God - Anon
It is interesting that everyone here on Slashdot is actually noticing that their representatives in Congress don't listen to you. I've noticed this for years, after sending many letters to representatives, all I've ever gotten were crappy form auto-replies. Its amazing that more evil laws have not been passed.
A representative democracy is part of a republic, but a republic is also bounded by laws in their governing.
The idea is to protect minorities from omnipotent majorities. Thus the Constitution & Amendments, to protect minorities and individuals from public weal, representatively determined or not.
Are the laws being passed by our representatives Constitutional?
Pet peeve: "Representative Democracy == Republic" evaluates to 0. == is a conditional, not an assignment. Even if it were assignment, it would not be mathematical equivelence...
I wish people would listen to the words of the founding fathers on occasion:
"Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety."- The Papers of Ben Franklin
I recently wrote an email to my congress-persons about how much I did not like the various bills to undo various american freedoms. I have received one response. A paper-mail form-letter about how much they appreciated how much I was personally distrubed about terrorisim and how they would possibly act to make sure that (blah blah blah)....
No sign of anything having anything to do with what I wrote at all.
They are not listening. Period.
Innocent people shouldn't be forced to pay for inferior software development.
--"Code Complete" Microsoft Press
I sent the following email to one of my senators, John Kyl:
Dear John,
Thank you for passing today an act (USA Act) that helps destroy our fourth amendment - an amendment to the very Constitution you swore to uphold when you took office.
Why must the rights of American citizens be violated for our so-called "safety"?
I am not a senator, something which I would like to think takes great logic and analytical skills, as well as strong morals. But this does not seem to be the case, as you apparently do not understand that SAFETY IS AN ILLUSION. Laws exist to help keep that illusion in place, but once
again, laws themselves are illusions.
The government can not protect me. I do not harbor such illusions. I, myself only, am the only one capable of providing for MY protection.
As a constituent, I look forward to your running for office again.
So I CAN VOTE YOU OUT.
Sincerely,
I sent it using the address "info@kyl.senate.gov", which I found in the FORM code in the page source at http://www.senate.gov/~kyl/con_form.htm
I sent it via normal email, because I also cc'ed the email to our other John, John McCain, so I didn't use the form.
Fat lot of good it would have done me anyway, because here is the form response I got back:
Thank you for writing to me at info@kyl.senate.gov. In an effort to respond as quickly and thoroughly as possible, I am no longer receiving e-mail at this address. I have chosen instead to use a new web-based system that allows me to quickly review the thousands of e-mails I receive and give priority to those from my constituents in Arizona.
There is more, but it is long - suffice to say that the reply went on to note that I should go to the site and the reply form that I had went to originally to get the address!
This is utter bull! I used the address used in the form, and it is an invalid address! So even if I used the reply form, it wouldn't go to him! Am I right on this, or wrong? This is the way it seems. I suppose the CGI could email it elsewhere, but why is the mailto var set to that email address?
ARGH!!!!
Reason is the Path to God - Anon
I know people who get envelopes daily that look handwritten on first glance. Then you notice that the letter "s" always curves the same. Then you notice that all the other letters do too. And they're almost always from people who want donations, too-- non-profits and political groups.
I'll bet congressmen get bombarded with people who are doing their first political mailing and think that trick will work. If I were the congressman, I'd have a special form letter for people that sent machine-printed letters designed to look like handwriting; I'm sure the majority of congressmen don't share my opinion, however. (Not that I don't wish they did.)
but they do not respond the way they should. Instead of a personal e-mail, written by them to you, outlining the reasons they think these bills are a good idea. And showing that many other constituents also think so.
Instead they (unfortunatly) choose to try to change our minds by scare tactics. Such as the recent statements released by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, which unfortunatly scare many citezens into caring less about freedom and safety.
Freedom is protection from unreasonable power, while safety is protection from unreasonable people.
Lose your virginity to reply.....
Why do you think anyone outside of the high-tech-business-complex takes email seriously?
Write your congressman. Type your letter on good bond paper, in a high quality envelope, properly addressed. Make your case as well-reasoned and literate as you possibly can. Send them letters
worthy of a head of state or elected official.
Do not simply write your congressman "one and done." Develop a relationship with your representative's office over a period of years, by writing letters, participating in their campaign, or even joining the political party that they represent.
Don't send them an email during the busiest time they have ever had, and then act surprised that they didn't take the time to read your rant.
-fb Everything not expressly forbidden is now mandatory.
I haven't personally tried this, but I'm about to start:
These folks have CD and/or tape decks in their cars, right? They drive to work just like most of the rest of us. I'm going to formulate my thoughts on the issues, write them down notecard-style, and then dictate a brief spoken-word piece explaining a bit of background, then my view on each.
I figure, an hour or two to come up with good points on the issues, another 20 minutes to outline them, 1-2 hours to record and edit the voice files. They don't have to be perfect. 10 minutes to burn the sucker, during which time I hand-write the jewel case label on nice stationery. Lick a stamp, wham bam, a week later they're listening to my intelligent(?) explanations of the issues during what would otherwise be wasted time.
From The Home Front, Issue 1, track listing:
1: Don't hum that tune, it's protected!
2: Hackers, today's Salem Witches.
3: Only outlaws will have privacy.
4: Love your freedom? Thank a vet. NO on SSSCA!
5: Vivaldi, the four seasons, spring. (instr.)
6: Protect our parks and woods, please!
7: Potholes on Interstate 94. (instr.)
8: Guest artist: Larry's Shocks And Struts
7: Until next time...
I don't know if it'll work, but it's certainly worth a shot. Maybe the inside of the jewel case insert could be a quick-reference to the various bills and issues, and my positions on them, and a very brief set of memory-jogging keywords as to why.
This is something uniquely hackish. Most constituents don't have CD burners yet, we have a few months before the mainstream lobbyists catch on. Hackers tend to be intelligent and a lot are well-spoken, this just might work.
So maybe we should get a bunch of people to put a check for a few hundred bucks each into an envelope to their local Reps saying something like: "Thank you for voting in the anti-terrorist and freedoms act we talked about previously. Here is the money you were promised."
If you can't beat lobbyists, you may as well play their game badly enough to get some attention.
Connect the dots:
1) Alien & Sedition Act (1798)
The one that started it all. You clearly are unaware of even this one. Start here.
2) Harrison Act (1914)
The start of our "War On Drugs"
3) Anti-Communist Propaganda Law (1941, McCarthy Era)
The start of our "War On Communism"
All three of these have demonstrably unconstitutional provisions in them that still stand today. There was controversy when they were passed, but after all, it was "war" so it was determined that tearing up the Constitution was fine.
Two other current events you are also demonstrably ignorant of:
CDA - "The War on Pornography"
DMCA/SSSCA - the "War on Piracy"
This is a question I think everyone asks when they first get politically active. The answer is, "Mostly...kinda." There are ways that are effective for lobbying; but to a certain degree, if what you're asking for veers to far away from either 1) public perception or 2) their own personal beliefs, they will end up ignoring you. This is a major failure of our legal system, IMO, but there's a solution: vote people into office who more closely represent the views of American citizens.
There's a longish section on our site about this subject, here.
In a nutshell, though, email just isn't very effective. Fax and snail mail is good; phone calls are especially effective if you are articulate. Stating your opinion clearly and concisely is important; if you ramble on about civil liberties, they won't quite "get" it. If you say, "Vote no on this particular bill, and here's why" that is more likely to have an effect.
The final point is this: right now everyone's in a hubbub, and 10x as many people as usual are contacting their representatives. They are just going to be less responsive right now. On top of that, everyone is so concerned with _feeling_ that they don't have time for _thinking_. This is unfortunate, but I think that it will pass as time goes on.
Are you insane??? We didn't even get to elect the fucking president. Why should they listen? We have, and never will have any say in what they do. Ever. They flash that truth in your faces and still you don't see it. Idiots.
Become a FIST.
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Fists_of_Righteous_
I interned for a state representative in California a summer ago, and if there is one thing I learned there, it's that they don't pay much attention to emails. In terms of time, the representatives are all over the place and almost never around, but a real letter, or second to that, a phone call, go a longer way in getting some kind of serious response.
It sucks that email is not as respected as other methods of communication, but they get so many quacks writing them that something more tangible usually works better. Nevertheless, even if you send an actual letter I'm not saying you will necessarily get a satisfactory response, I'm just saying its more likely. The system sure ain't perfect.
What happens if you send one letter saying:
Please think carefully about our actions in Afghanistan, the country there is very fragile, the people have had a long history of being shoved around, can we just think about what we are going to do before we act?
And then another that says:
Dear person who represents me and my country. Would you mind going and kicking ass in Afghanistan? If you could, please kill everyone you possibly can while there, because if they are all dead, none of them can hurt us, right?
Would you get two different form letters back? I wondered because when I sent something that was similar to the first, I got a form letter back being told that they were going to be very careful and that they had been to cenral asia on many occiasions and knew my concerns.
I wondered what would have been sent to me if I had sent the second letter? Would they have blindly agreed with everything I said just like the first?
Has anyone tried this?
in high school, i - like so many others - had to write my congressman on some issue. i wrote about a then current issue, regarding retirement pay fFor veterans. my point is, i decided that if I wished to illicit a real response, I should put fForth a more or less un assuming outward appearance. rather than start off with "Hi, i'm a high school student writing about blah blah blah..." i thought i'd just wheel right into the technical specifics. it evidently worked, as i got a very direct, very usefull reply. so the moral of the story: sound like a voter (or even better, a contributor), not a geek.
Several years ago, my family and I (I was about ten at the time) went into Barney Frank's (my congressman- MA Democrat) office to get some Senate passes. We expected to just pick the passes up from the secretary at the front desk, but she told us that Mr. Frank was in the back, and could come out if we waited a few minutes.
Three or four minutes later, out he came. He introduced himself and then chatted with us for about ten minutes. He was a pleasure to talk to, and listened to what we said, on whatever issue we wanted to talk about. (It was years ago, so I don't remember what exactly we said, but I do remember being struck by his knowledge about whatever random topics we brought up.)
We had no money, no agenda, no power, and didn't even expect to talk to him.
It's nice to know that there is at least one congressman who cares and is accessible. It's no wonder that he's barely even been challenged in his district for years.
Additionally, here are his views on the terrorism bill. One excerpt:
Senator, not State Senator. State Senate handles in state laws, but if he goes to Washington, hes a United State's Senator.
"They are making decisions regarding their longstanding agendas and using the "war on terrorism" as a cover."
This seems exactly right. The evidence suggests that the real motivating factors for top political decisions are weapons and oil. The U.S. is the largest seller of weapons in the world. The U.S. gives billions of dollars in aid to Israel, part of which must be spent to buy weapons from U.S. manufacturers. U.S. weapons manufacturers also sell weapons to Arabs.
This is a quote from the official testimony to the U.S. House of Representatives of Unocal Vice President John J. Maresca, on February 12, 1998. He said, in part, "CentGas cannot begin construction [of a gas pipeline] until an internationally recognized Afghanistan government is in place."
For a link to this document on the House of Representatives government web site, and a document about the pipeline route, search on the word Unocal in: What should be the Response to Violence?
The Bush family has ties to Unocal. Richard Armitage, deputy secretary of of the U.S. Defense Deparment, made a trip to Burma (where Unocal has interests) that was paid for by Unocal.
It seems possible that the war in Afghanistan is being waged to allow the pipeline to go through.
It's like the "war on drugs" which has increased the amount of drugs available in the United States.
Bush's education improvements were
Diane Feinstein at least reads her email (I got a personal reply from her this week), Sen. Boxter doesn't seem to want to respond to anything.
Still trying to get something through to Rep. Honda, although I have no idea how he will respond.
I wrote to all of the pollies representing me in the federal Australian parliment, along with all of those in the ministerial positions related to it, around 10 in all, and I only got one response from it. This wasn't an automated response, but told me to write to a committee that was dealing with this issue, not who was on the committe, nor where to get this info, nothing.
I was not happy...
if you think this is true, where were you sept 11?
You have no idea.. ;)
I used to live in an area in my country where it seemed the only times that the local representative actually was in the region was election time.
To make things worse, while we were one of the very worst representated electorates I know, the people consistently and overwhelmingly (~70%) voted for one political party, no matter what happened (automagical). So, in a two party system, one party didn't do anything for us because they knew that we would never vote for them, and the other didn't do anything because they knew, no matter what, we would still vote for them.
Want to be heard on the political level? Make your electoral region marginal.
- - -
giftedu
The problem with this is your choice is between a few bad choices.
Something akin to making murder legal if you give the victim a choice as to how they will die.
If the Slashdot community wants any recognition of their views, the most effective way would be to form a PAC, accept donations (to cover travel and administrative costs, and possibly to influence some elections via advertising), elect volunteers to coordinate for particular activities or areas of Federal law, tally people's opinions on various legislative proposals, and send physical representatives (lobbyists) knocking on Congresspersons' doors.
Or, if that seems like too much trouble, even though it is how most effective political expression occurs in the US, then at the very least join organizations that already reflect your views. For example, people who are for free trade in crypto and against software patents should become paying ACM members, since the ACM already lobbies on behalf of those views.
Yes, I think the fact that any of this is necessary to get our own government ("of the people") to respect our views is terribly sad and reeks of corruption. But we live in the real world, and this is how things are done. It is the rare, determined, charismatic person who can make any progress changing our government outside this corrupt system, and most of those people are (sadly) ultimately assimilated into it.
Java: the COBOL of the new millenium.
Though you highlight the apparent irresponsiveness of federal legislators it is important to recognize that other levels of government react differently. At NJ's Tour of Solar Homes yesterday (13 Oct 2001) I learned that NJ's legislators receive copies of newspaper editorials commenting on public policy and apparenelty have formulae for translating this and other public experssions into interest (i.e. a latter indicates 100 other people are probably interested, a phone call indicates 10, etc.)
people like you kill me!! It takes some nut flying an Airplane into a building befroe you pay any attention!
Waht did you expect!! THese people that are politicians deal with people like you all the time.
You never cast a vote one way or another and when something happens that finally attracts your attention.
You get pissed off because somebody in his office didn't immediately hold your little hand.
Do the rest of the world a favor and Grow up.
your little opinion counts but not for very much.
Now you will probadly sit around and growl about how they never pay attention to Big important you!
Grow up.
I would be willing to bet that 75% of the people that are agreeing with you here and now, could not pick their state represenative let alone your federal congressman from a crooks line up of pictures in your local post office.
If you want to be counted amonst the opinion shapers in your neighborhood, do something to help the people in your local home town.
I contacted my rep last Friday about this issue, and she actually voted against the anti-terrorism bill.
It passed regardless, but it shows that you can have some influence on your rep's decisions.
I used to be someone else. Now I'm someone better.
Real life is underrated.