"Thank you for your thoughts on this matter, I didn't read them. Here is a boilerplate statement espousing all the great things about this bill that you specifically criticized in your message to me. Please don't reach out again."
this post was submitted on 29 Aug 2023
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"Email your senator" is just about the most pointless waste of time aside from watching paint dry. Every time I've done it, I get a canned response that clearly shows nobody read it, just a robot that scans for keywords and generates a response based on that. "Let me tell you why all the things you are upset about are actually good things, and remember to vote for me!"
I wonder if they do statistics on the emails that come in to get a general idea of the group sentiment.
This is exactly what they do. Interns look at them (or some text comparison output) and take a general temperature.
I honestly think it depends on the Senator.
I've had a really good response from Senator Warnock who ended up sending a representative out to inspect housing filled with black mold and mildew on the military base I work on.
Not sure what actually came of it, but Warnock did do something at least.
Reps and Senators have specific people dedicated to military and veteran assistance.
I figured it was because it was military that they actually did anything at all. I would just hope they'd take every citizen's concerns into consideration.
To be fair, the same shit happens when you call them. Some intern answers and you don't even get the platitudes. You might just be a tally mark on a list if they feel like it.
I like emailing my senator/CP because it does create a paper trail. One day maybe I'll run against them and read all the emails I sent them, in public.
Enough phone calls will make a dent, though. I worked on Capitol Hill and every office is just a handful of young staffers manning the phones. So when we pissed people off, we really felt it. Those days were the worst. Couldn't do anything except answer the next ringing phone. You can definitely motivate action that way, but it takes a decent little group of people to be willing to make the calls.
An intern read it, after which they found the form letter written by the staffer who handles those issues and used that to reply to you. The communication will never reach the staffer, let alone the congressperson. If you’re lucky, the office won’t have an intern and the administrative assistant will be the one to do the above.
Yes, Douglas, vote for me.
Yep
I wouldn't call it entirely pointless. I'd describe it as one of the easiest ways to be involved with politics, along with voting. It's very low commitment, and a low level of escalation/results. I highly recommend doing some training on union organizing, even if you aren't interested in organizing a union. The tradeoff between commitment and escalation is very important when determining what actions to take in all forms of organizing, including political organizing
It certainly feels entirely pointless, even more pointless than voting. It's not really being involved with politics because it doesn't really change anything. It's like writing letters to Santa Claus, except Santa is polite enough not to write back "Fuck you I won't do what you tell me."
If you really care about climate change, you should firebomb a coal power plant or take a claw hammer to a private jet. That will be far more effective and fun than writing a senator who could not give two shits what you think.
Believe it or not, there's room for both. If a meeting with a senator doesn't produce results, is it really being involved with politics, based on your criteria?
We need to do the easy stuff, and we need to do fun stuff. If you're unwilling to write an email, then that just means you're unwilling to do one of the easiest methods of political engagement.
At least if you meet with a senator you can be sure they heard you and you can flip them off in person. Emails always feel like screaming into the void and expecting it to care.
Trust me, hearing isn't the same as understanding. Senators, executives, billionaires, etc are all the same. They're used to their power and they are unwilling to actually understand people like us. Organizing direct action will always be more effective than voting or writing emails. I know from lived experience that direct action is best. But civic engagement also involves the easy stuff, so it shouldn't be written off as pointless
Ok I firebombed a power plant but now the warden says I'm not allowed to call my senator (or anyone else) and two thirds of the public associates climate activism with terrorism, what next?
Break out. Do it again.
Also depends on state vs federal government. It's a lot easier to start making a change in your local government.
You’d think so. I used to.
I didn't say it was easy, but it's definitely not as hard as the federal government. For example, there are several offices in my county that have only one candidate (and occasionally none!).
I watched my dad get elected to local office with all kinds of ideas about how to improve things. In the end he managed to make sure the ugly apartment buildings a developer built weren't as ugly as they had planned, but even that took a bunch of meetings and a huge amount of time.
So getting elected to local office is absolutely easier than getting elected to state and federal, but making change in a local government is still fighting a huge amount of inertia.