[tptacek]

I think it may depend on the congressperson, but we've spoken directly to staffers. All of them have told us that email is the least effective way to reach out. Some of them are even picky about where you call, and suggest that calls to the main DC line are the only ones that count; others say that calls are tallied at all regional field offices.

Nobody has advised us not to call.

[tedunangst]

I continue to be bewildered by the opacity of the process. You (the politician) are getting free market research. Why would you try to impede it?

[forgotmysn]

Not to steer this conversation into campaign finance waters, but...

I'm not sure its accurate to depict constituent communication as market research, as the constituents are not always/not usually the market elected representatives are catering to. The people they need to please are the people who pay for their campaigns, rather than the people they try to reach with those campaigns.

[tedunangst]

I think politicians vote the way they're paid to vote on issues nobody cares about, but it can be dangerous to ignore voters on issues they do care about.

[forgotmysn]

That may be true, but one must also consider that the public is also not well enough informed on many issues to have an opinion worth merit.

Health care, foreign policy, corporate taxes, etc. are all extremely complex issues, and its hard to derive an informed opinion from the press alone. I think that's why it's hard to be a good leader and a popular leader at the same time.

[wolf550e]

Not a joke, I believe this video will answer most of your questions about why a political thing works the way it does: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rStL7niR7gs

[forgotmysn]

Certainly, I would never suggest that someone _shouldn't_ try to communicate their views to their representative. My thoughts focus more on efficacy, and the degree to which individual voters can impact the decisions their rep makes.