My hypothesis is that this is because they co-opted a lot of the civil rights movement to elevate some vague sense of "nonviolent protest" to the pinnacle of political action. Obviously this applies to more things, but calling your representative is just the peak of lib action.

Everything I say is going to be entirely vibes-based, but I feel like what the education system here taught about civil rights was a lot of "Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat and MLK led nonviolent protests and did that one speech and the nonviolent protests were so effective in the marketplace of ideas that we ended racism (oh and btw MLK was a moderate who would agree with Republicans today )." Now libs basically think any action where you make a lot of noise without any material consequences is the best way to create change because everyone's a rational actor who will always choose the good ideas as long as you put the idea out there and "look!! it worked in the 60s!!" Couple this with the belief that we actually live in a democracy where the government will "listen to the people" and you'll get people calling their representatives and sending strongly worded letters

It feels like more effort than just voting but it still accomplishes nothing, plus you can scold people for not doing it 'cause it's still not, like, a lot of effort.

Perfect for libs, in short.

there have been a few bills shut down alongside mass public outcry.

your rep has to be amenable to the demand to begin with.

even then it won't work for every issue

it requires hundreds of calls per rep

the effort to return ratio is probably pretty good, actually because leaving a voicemail is mechanically very easy. just don't confuse it with real organizing or direct action. mamdani calling your congressman isn't the revolution and nobody thinks it is.

They have foundational memories from Miracle on 34th Street and still believe that if large enough volumes of mail get delivered it proves that theirs really is a real government

You gotta talk to the manager, Bobby

i wonder if getting some email domain like a1pac.com is more likely to succeed lmao than 50 calls.

idk, I don't call my rep because if I feel like I "can" talk to the government I'm way too likely to say something I shouldn't be saying to them. Like "PPB". I know not to talk to cops, so why would I talk to someone else who works for the fascist government?

This time it's gotta work.

---

Dearest Santa,

I want a pony.

Sincerely,
A Liberal

Most people, including politicians, aren't complete ghouls immune to social pressure. Depending on where you live, your local representative probably doesn't get "fuck you" money from lobbyists and actually has to live in the community they represent. They're probably just a normal person, and normal people don't do well with getting yelled at. The US government isn't a monolith.

Most libs are true believers in the liberal "democratic" system.

It can be an easy action that can be asked of people, potentially getting them more invested in fighting for whatever the issue is

Most people don't use this ask this way tho