[saguro]

www.google.com/search?q=i+contacted+my+representative+site%3Areddit.com

Knock yourself out.

Spoiler alert: almost everyone reports getting a cookie-cutter email or scripted response about why the rep will stay the course. They clearly have an established strategy of how to handle the 'contact your rep' crowd and channel their efforts to /dev/null.

[JumpCrisscross]

> almost everyone reports getting a cookie-cutter email or scripted response about why the rep will stay the course

Who is “almost everyone”? Any personal experience?

Mine involves getting a personal e-mail from my state Assemblyman, being patched in to the senior legislative aide to my U.S. Congresswoman who spoke to me at length about the issue, getting follow-up by e-mail to calls after the points I raised were discussed with my U.S. Senator, and being reached out to by my state Senator’s office for input on a draft bill. I also know that for my tech-savvy Manhattan Congressional district I am usually one of a small handful voters regularly calling in about digital privacy.

I’m fine with voters being busy or lazy. But don’t brag about it.

[saguro]

You're suggesting that your n=1 anecdote weighs more than those thousands of reddit stories? Or that my position is invalid because instead of engaging in another n=1 anecdote I aggregated the outcome of many?

For your one story, you can click the top few links of that search to see detailed accounts and full documented histories from representatives who are clearly systemically stonewalling this kind of activism. And judging by those counts, they are the majority.

[JumpCrisscross]

> thousands of reddit stories

Many of “thousand of Reddit stories” are just like your comment. Repeating a meme, nothing more.

Will your representatives always be responsive? No. Some are worse than others. On some issues, the political tea leaves are too obvious to merit discussion.

By and large, however, representatives and their staff care about their constituents. When you call (better than form responses on websites), you show you care about an issue. Their offices want to know if you represent a budding movement they can attach to.

You’ve cast aside a core civic right and, in my opinion, duty, based on anonymous forum comments. It would take you thirty minutes to call yourself, but that’s too much of a hassle. Fine, that’s your right. It’s also mine to call out your comments as emotional self-indulgence more than anything substantive.

[saguro]

> Many of “thousand of Reddit stories” are just like your comment. Repeating a meme, nothing more.

Demonstrably, provably, completely, wrong.

https://www.reddit.com/r/netneutrality/comments/7kzblu/i_con... - 4 page account of comms

https://www.reddit.com/r/Firearms/comments/75yjkd/the_offici... - photos showing redditor attended in person instead of making a phone call. Was told their concerns would be 'passed along'

https://www.reddit.com/r/pcmasterrace/comments/6dm169/i_also... - full account of comms. Again cookie cutter response.

Maybe this is biased because it's the top results. Let's jump to page 4.

https://www.reddit.com/r/SaltLakeCity/comments/7dtlyr/i_just... - rep's voice mail is full and has been for months. No response

https://www.reddit.com/r/Connecticut/comments/7gwins/this_is... - representative actually stands up for the interests of constituents. Yay, we got one!

No memes here, just detailed accounts which overwhelmingly demonstrate that paid-for representatives have a strategy to deal with this. As for civic duties, you do not have a civic duty to uphold a process which is a textbook example of regulatory capture. If you get success by doing it, great. But statistically, for the majority of Americans, talking to their rep is worse than doing nothing. It's spending their time and effort on a process which is designed to ignore them, so they don't spend that same effort searching for an alternative process which might actually work.

This process used to be effective; before it was circumvented by lobbying activity. You can't cling to it today just because it worked yesterday. You also can't get jobs by just turning up to places and handing out your CV. Times change.

[gamblor956]

You need to actually read your cites. Many of your link actually support what we've been saying. Their concerns were passed along to the representatives and they were pleased with the responses they got.

[cinquemb]

I suspect that they're suggesting that your apparent disillusionment with the call your representatives process, whom have over time, enabled in part what we see before us today == being busy or lazy and that you are bragging about being busy or lazy, as if change could only happen by picking up phone and sending emails telling another how upset you are or that even if you did do the aforementioned and were received favorably by such representatives, you would be placated and faith in the process overall will be restored even without the actual change you seek even occurring.

Onlookers are to make of that what they will.

[dawnerd]

Oh, reddit. Yeah... I'll believe everything I see there.

Yeah, some reps are bad and don't listen but I'm willing to bet most at least log down how many people complain about what. Having an attitude of contacting them does nothing only just makes things worse and has no potential upside. At least if you do "waste" your time contacting them you may have a change to do good.

[NoGravitas]

I kind of have both experiences. I have frequently contacted my state and federal legislators, leaving messages with their staff, and have never gotten back any message other than a form letter or email stating that they are going to do exactly what they were planning on doing all along. But I'm also reasonably certain that their staff do keep a tally; just that there's plenty of stuff in their political calculus (demographics, gerrymandering, campaign contributions) that means they don't have to pay attention.

The biggest irony is that shortly after I contact any legislator telling them how I oppose their policy position, they start sending me mail asking for campaign contributions.

[gamblor956]

Every single one of those "contacts" was people emailing their representative. Emailing your representative isn't an effective means of communication. It takes no effort to write an email. Most political offices assume an email is a form letter drafted by some special interest.

Call your representative, or meet them in person when they're back in the district. If they know you're a real person, they will respond to you directly with something more than a scripted response.