Easy and Shrewd Activist Tactics - to add to the great advice in the "Indivisible Guide":
I was invited to make this a separate thread, by another DUer, logosoco, in a thread by kstewart33. Things to keep in mind when you're calling in to your Senator(s) and Congressmember.
Remember, YOU are THEIR employer. Would they defy their boss in any other job?
Probably not, unless they're stupid and masochistic and don't pay attention and just react at the gut level and ...
Oh, never mind.
Reading the Indivisible Guide ( https://www.indivisibleguide.com ) taught me the importance of focusing on YOUR own "big three" - YOUR two Senators and YOUR Congresscritter. HOWEVER...
I've always believed that you make noise wherever you think it can be heard. YES focus on YOUR reps. But I'd submit that it's also valuable to spread that a little. And I go ahead and call somebody else. For example, Ted Lieu's my Congressman (Glory Hallelujah!) but there's also the next door guy, Brad Sherman, into whose district I may go on, either on a daily basis, or perhaps 3 - 5 days a week. I spend money there. I fill my gas tank there. Our son now lives out there. (HEY! THERE'S a hook, right there!) Our daughter lives in another state - but we visit there and go out to eat and spend money and rent a car and fill the gas tank and visit the local stores and sights, when we're there to hang out with her. So that tells me I have an interest in contacting THOSE reps THERE, also.
FURTHER:
(And I'll use the hapless Heidi Heitkamp as an example.) She's a Senator from North Dakota. Purportedly a Dem, although from some of her votes, I'm not convinced of that. I live in California. I don't know anybody in North Dakota (except for when my son and his band were touring through there and did business there and I was dealing with the local promoters and such). Hmmm - another reason to call the reps there including her.
HOWEVER - when she was first running for the Senate, I responded to a campaign email to send her a donation. I did that a few times. Just a small donation, but it WAS a financial donation. I sent her money. She won. Yay! But then I started to realize she's a DINO on some things - like that horrible time immediately after the Newtown massacre of little innocent school children. She went on "Good Morning America" either the next day or two days after, to assert that there was no way she was going to support restrictions on the right to own massacre machines (some people call them assault rifles or automatic rifles. I call them massacre machines). I called her office and gave 'em hell. BUT FIRST, I told them that yes, I'm not from North Dakota, I'm from California. BUT: when she was campaigning for this job she now has, she was VERY happy to take MY CALIFORNIA MONEY for her campaign. She sure didn't turn my donation away because I wasn't from her state. Neither did her campaign people. They wanted it and were very glad to get it. So yes, in that respect, she works for ME, TOO. And I SAID THAT to the staffer who took my call. I helped her win that Senate seat. So that entitles me to ownership of a little bit of that. I thereby own a piece of it, however small. AS a donor - a financial underwriter of her campaign. I thereby own a piece of that.
Same thing for Joe Manchin from West Virginia. I sent him money, too, when he was first running for the Senate. I won't make that mistake again. AND, FURTHERMORE, next time the opportunity presents itself, I plan to call his office and point out that I was a campaign contributor, AND add that I won't be making THAT mistake anymore.
I had an abrupt tutorial in that whole aspect of out-of-state contacts when I called Susan Collins' office years ago. And I was rudely told by the staffer taking my call: "and WHAT does this have to do with the State of Maine?" THAT kind of situation is where you butt in with "my niece and her family live there and I visit her frequently, and spend money there and support the local economy several times a year, so I have a direct personal interest in the State of Maine that I care about a LOT." That kinda shuts 'em up.
If you have relatives in another state, if you have business interests there, if you own property there, ANY reasons to show how you have a personal connection there, I'd recommend exploiting that fact whenever you interface with the representative class. They may technically not represent you directly, but indirectly? That's quite another matter entirely.
One other thing - the staffers frequently ask for zip codes where you're calling from.
I suspect if you're on a cell phone, they'll put 2 +2 together and figure out your area code is NOT from "friendly" turf. But that doesn't mean very much anymore, since people often keep their old numbers - WITH the old area codes - even after they move. I have a friend who has an L.A. area code on her cell number. But she moved to the Midwest years ago. She just didn't change her cell number to reflect that. I'd guess most of the staffers are aware of that.
BUT JUST IN CASE, you can make that point. You can say your personal locale is your mother's house, and use that zip code. After all, if your name is on there, don't you pay property taxes there? So YOU ARE INDEED vested in the local community. Sometimes I've taken to making a note of my friend's or relative's zip codes, so I can give them that when I call that state's reps to give them a piece of my mind.
SERIOUSLY! If
- you interact regularly with people in other states,
- you spend money there,
- you SEND money there,
- you order regularly from there,
- you own property there,
- you have business dealings there,
- you've donated to political campaigns there (so they damn well better listen to you if you underwrote their campaign to win that job)
- or some of your family members and/or friends live there (so whatcha gonna do when you visit? Lock yourself in their closet and not go out or spend money locally to shop, go to dinner, go see a local play or something, or otherwise support the local economy? You gonna go visit and do it from inside a hermetically-sealed locker in their house where you don't have any interaction with the outside world??? I'd guess, probably NOT!)
If you answer "yes" to any of those, above, THEN IT SEEMS TO ME YOU ABSOLUTELY DO have a right to call the reps there and register a complaint, or make your views known. What they do IS affecting you AND your business, property, local relatives. You have a personal interest to protect.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10028551671 (by DUer kstewart33)
(POSTS 38 AND 45 )
THE INDIVISIBLE GUIDE:
https://www.indivisibleguide.com
= new reply since forum marked as read
