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Grass Roots Shmass Roots
Picture this. You open your email one morning and see that you have been blessed with 450 new emails overnight. First thought? If you didn’t think, “oh crap. Someone has a new virus,” I would be very surprised. But, if you DID think, “Oh! This is very exciting! I can’t wait to read 450 new emails before breakfast!” then, my friend, you are one very disturbed person. Now, if you begin to open your 450 new emails and soon discover that they are all IDENTICAL except for the person’s name that sent them, you will have a decent idea of what it is like to be targeted by online grass roots efforts. The real important part is to ask yourself this, though… Do you feel A) Impressed, B) Annoyed, or C) Persuaded? “B” is the only answer a sane person can really choose here.
If you want to tell your opinion to your elected representation, you need to first make sure it is YOUR representation you are telling. It may come of a surprise to you to hear this (sorry NRA), but non-constituent emails and phone calls are not even recorded by many of us. So, please, take the time to find out who you are represented by and contact THAT person. Also, be sure to identify yourself as a constituent in “district X” by giving your physical address to the receptionist when you call or write. If you won’t, we assume you are a nut or a hired grass roots helper. In either case, your input means nothing.
If you want your opinion to be considered, try to communicate like a civil adult with some thoughtful consideration of the complexity of the situation. Just telling me you are for or against something is not as useful as WHY you hold that opinion. Do you have experience in the field affected by the policy being considered? If so, be sure to mention that. Believe it or not, most of us want to avoid unintended consequences and hear from the “real Joes” out there who are not paid lobbyists. Oh, and by the way, name-calling is the sign of an unstable mind. After years of watching my staff be abused by people calling in who simply wanted to lash out, I now instruct them to simply hang up if a caller becomes abusive. Get over it. Learn to behave. If you can’t, then suck it. You don’t pay my staff enough to suffer your ignorant abuse. Go take it out on your own mother who clearly didn’t raise you right. My office is not a venting outlet. Go blog, for crying out loud. But, please, lose my number.
There are good grass roots efforts and bad ones, to be sure. Bad efforts actually have a negative effect on my attitudes towards the issue. Here’s an example: Moron government relations guy sends out a postcard in my district compelling my voters in orange alert postcard fashion (you know who you are) to call me right away and tell me to vote for X policy. Now, if you are loyal follower of orange-card-people organization, you think, “Wow! I can’t believe that MY guy is going to vote against this. I better call him now and give him a warning that I am going to vote him out if he doesn’t get right on the issues with orange-card-people!” And, since most voters never remember to check, most just assume I voted wrong on their key issue and just toss the postcard… The problem is, I am a champion on orange-card-people issues and moron government relations guy has just expended money to “suggest” to my voters that I am about to screw them on one of my key issues. He hurts me, he hurts all of us who care about the issue, and he could possibly end up costing me enough votes FROM MY OWN BASE that another politician beats me who hates the orange-card-people and their issue. If this were uncommon, it would just be a curious case study in amateur grass roots work. Unfortunately, it isn’t.
