Alonzo Fyfe

Writting letters to senators and congresscritters is a bit like praying. You might feel better when you're done, but you've accomplished nothng.

Think of it from the recipient's point of view. First, he'll never see the letter. Some collegel Poly-Sci major is going to open it, type your name and address into a database, print a form letter, and return it. At best, it will show up as a tick mark in a report to the senator that the Poly-Sci major writes up saying, "we got N letters in favor of X, and M letters against X."

The person that the recipient is going to listen to is the person who comes to his door with a business card identifying himself as the Official Spokesthing for the Royal Order of People with Lots of Money who are Waiting for our Recommendation on Who to Give It To.

So, what can you threaten him with? Well, if earning your vote costs him two others on the other side, he's going to go for the other side. And he is going to determine this, not by counting letters. He is going to go to the Major Party Strategy Group and look at a poll that says, "If you say X you will get more votes than if you say Y."

Are you going to threaten him with a guilty conscience? "Unless you do what I say you will be a bad person, no matter how popular you become?" Notwithstanding the fact that he can't be made to feel guilty from a letter he never reads, even if he agrees with you about how wrong such a vote will be, he still must ask the question, "Is it better, to give up my office to somebody worse than I and become a noble impotent nobody, or to do the best that I can with what I have?"

Which is one thing that the letter writer should really keep in mind. Do you like this person? Do you like the job that the person is doing enough to generally want him or her to keep that job? Or do you want him or her to turn it over to somebody else -- somebody you don't like -- by asking them to support something that will get them voted out?

If you want to do something that is a bit more significant than the political equivalent of praying, the people to be sending those letters to aren't the senators and representatives, but to your friends, families, and neighbors. When they support a position, the politicians will back it.

The Religious Right have their congregations and church services, their magazines, TV broadcasts, radio talk shows, and spam mail. In short, they talk to their family, their friends, and their neighbors.

Sure, a few of them send letters to their representatives as well. But that's not what gets the job done.

Shake

Well, I say so long as I can help make the "ticks" for my issue significant (not even necessarily a majority), then (IMHO) it's doing something.

I figure if my letter is the only one against/for issue X, then no, it's not going to make a difference. But if I help the opinion on issue X go to 60/40, then sure, the politician may still vote with the 60 side, but he can't fully ignore the 40 side, either.

I agree though, that a citizen's true power lies with his/her vote, but I don't think there's anything wrong with (attempting to) let your elected officials know how you feel. If they were smart, they'd take the time to answer a random number of letters personally. Enough so that word might spread, "Hey! I got an actual letter back from Congressperson Soandso!" Especially if they were tactfully honest in their response. Either "I agree and I'm going to Z about it," or, "Well, I don't agree with you about X, but here's why ... ." You still might vote against the official if they disagreed, but you might have gained some respect for them (or at least some understanding).

Alonzo Fyfe

There is nothing "wrong" with it just as there is nothing "wrong" with praying. The "wrong" comes from thinking, "I have now accomplished something," and going about one's life with this sense of satisfaction when, in fact, nothing has been accomplished.

If one feels strongly about an issue -- go ahead and write a letter. And pray, if you want. But then go out and do something meaningful. Find some way to communicate your views, not to the politician (who really has no reason to care unless you have a lot of money and resources to devote to his re-election campaign), but to other people.