Technology

Umm…have you ever tried contacting your representatives?

I did it just a few days ago, actually.

You seem to think it’s so easy to get them on the phone.

You contact them, not call them. I never said call, I said contact.

Let them know you're watching, let them know your opinions on issues, let them know you're engaged, and you're not just mindless cattle that they can manipulate in whatever way they want. If we all do it, if they feel the 'Eye of Sauron' on them, they act differently.

All you have to do is use one of their online email forms. They even respond back, letting you know they registered your email on what subject you're talking about. They track this stuff internally.

From the article that you linked...

Unlike call volume, the data on mail sent to Congress is public, and it suggests that, at least among the politically active, the U.S. Postal Service remains popular; the Senate alone received more than 6.4 million letters last year. Contrary to popular opinion, those written communications are an effective way of communicating with Congress, >>>as are their electronic kin<<<. “Everything is read, every call and voice mail is listened to,” Isaiah Akin, the deputy legislative director for Oregon’s Senator Ron Wyden, told me. “We don’t discriminate when it comes to phone versus e-mail versus letter.

So, even in the article you linked, even the aides of Representatives state that contacting them is effective in making them aware that they're being seen by their constituency.

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/03/06/what-calling-congress-achieves

There's a volume/ratio problem of citizens to a single representative, so of course theyir aides are going to triage the calls coming in.

If you have a serious problem, some legal or administrative issue with the government, you actually are able to get elevated past the aides and talk to your actual representative. That happens all the time to citizens here.

But again, what I'm advocating is contacting them, you don't call, you email (which is actually easier for us citizens to do anyways). They usually even have a link on their website where you can just web email them directly.

Their aides are the only people receiving and sorting through those calls and emails and letters.

And what, the aides never talk to their senators or their representatives? They never track why people are calling? B.S., they do both.

You're not being intellectually honest. No one ever said you get personal one-on-one meetings whenever you want, and it's weird how you're purposely trying to motivate people not to engage in the political system they live in. Almost like you have an agenda/motives of your own.

Edit: Have you actually read through that whole article you linked? It really makes my point.

This is just two of the many examples that the article documents...

On January 2nd, House Republicans voted in secret to defang the Office of Congressional Ethics; less than twenty-four hours later, following what seemed at the time like a deluge of calls but later turned out to be just that loud patter you hear on your window before the storm really begins, they reversed their decision.

On January 24th, Representative Jason Chaffetz, Republican of Utah, introduced a proposal to sell off 3.3 million acres of federal land. Barely a week later, on February 1st, he withdrew it, after getting an earful. “Groups I support and care about fear it sends the wrong message,” he explained. “I hear you and H.R. 621 dies tomorrow.”