If you’re concerned about Trump’s nominations, the most impactful thing you can do is to reach out to your US Senators and voice your opposition. A large volume of brief phone calls do make a difference at strategic times. Immediately after a nomination announcement is one of those strategic times, because they are figuring out how/whether to respond publicly. Democracy must be fought for even after elections have ended.
Contacting Senators from both parties also matters right now. The prevailing message in the media is that Dems need to cater even more to Republicans to win the next election, they need to hear your voice if you disagree with that.
The most effective phone calls take less than a minute: say your name, your city or ZIP code, and what you support/oppose, maybe a sentence on why. You’ll be marked down on a spread sheet that is discussed at the daily office strategy meeting.
Other actions like brief emails, meeting in-person at the district office, meeting in-person at the DC office, can also be effective, but take more time and energy. Emails aren’t always read right away like a phone call must be answered for example. And you generally need to make an appointment for an in-person meeting.
Thought I’d add that mass phone calls are a tactic used by the NRA and other powerful lobby groups. Getting a lot of their group’s members to voice their opinion is the key to their success…perhaps to the point of making an office fearful of the backlash via phone calls for going against them.
The real power of the NRA is their membership is mostly reliable voters.
It also helps if you have a very specific and narrow cause … muh guns rights … and anti or pro specific legislation. This creates broad consensus… that follows the NRA draft talking points they usually bring out.
How many calls cancel out each dollar from corporate lobbying
Less than you would think, but it also depends on how you contact them. A physical call is way more powerful than an email. 10 people passionate enough to call can easily translate to 1k people passionate enough to vote about it.
It’s highly variable, and yes I absolutely agree money in politics is a big problem. I do have a direct experience where reaching out to my Senators led to them aggressively and successfully opposing a provision in a law that would have had a big impact on me. Don’t want to dox myself, but this real change to a bill made a huge difference to me and many others. So it is possible to make an impact.
God, the doomerism in the comments here fucking sucks. If you won’t even pick up a phone why am I expected to believe you’ll be the hardest antifa soldier there ever was when the revolution comes (which, conveniently, is never)?
This is more embarrassing than those people who spend real life money prepping for a zombie apocalypse. At least those people have things that might actually be useful in a real disaster.
Are you implying that this doomerism is of no use to anyone?
Correct. Doomerism is at best capitulating in advance.
why am I expected to believe you’ll be the hardest antifa soldier there ever was when the revolution comes (which, conveniently, is never)?
Are people here claiming to be that? Don’t conscript me to your make believe army.
There are very clearly some people that are accelerationist. I guess it’s possible they think they won’t have to fight, which makes being an accelerationist even shittier.
Also, if it’s wasn’t about you then it wasn’t about you.
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A self-fulfilling prophecy if his constituents don’t try to make him care
They actually do care believe it or not. When our city council was voting on municipal fiber we showed up to petition our conservative city council representative to vote in favor. Guess who also attended, a representative from our federal senator’s office. Oh man the look on his face when only 3 members of the public showed up, two of them major supporters of municipal broadband, and the third spoke up to agree with us. Mmmm priceless. The city council man and conservative rep were so damn flustered. The senator’s rep took notes the whole time and we got to talk to him one on one. These outreach events do way more than you would think, this is how they gauge what they can get away with. Don’t let them discourage you, show up and bitch!
If anyone doubts it, just look what lunatic conservative Karens have done at school board meetings across the country.
It’s gross when it’s about banning books, but when it’s something positive, it’s actually pretty amazing to see. Like the handful of students that you’d see show up between Karens to give impassioned pleas to, you know, please don’t do that.
If anything that makes it more important. We already know how essentially all the Democrats are going to vote. A couple of Republican defections is all it takes to hold the Senate.
The key here is they don’t have to defect on everything. Turning every Republican senator into a never Trumper isn’t happening. But making some of them defect some of the time is a lot more feasible, and requires constant pressure.
This is exactly why the OP exists! My state has been solid blue for a decade now. I trust my senators not to vote to confirm AG Gaetz, but they NEED a few Republicans to join them. It looks like Collins and Murkowski have come out against him. We need a few more, and OP is saying that calling is one of the few things that may influence them. Certainly more likely than bitching on Lemmy.
The one tradeoff to having Democrats representing me in Congress (both house district and Senate) is that I don’t have anyone to call over stuff like this because they’re already on my side… Although for some reason my governor (who has been awesome otherwise) has been praising RFK for HHS, so maybe I’ll need to call his office and my senators about that one. Anyway, PLEASE don’t fall into the opposite trap and give his office a call!
“We should call our representatives”
“na na why should I bother? This requires effort and I have to figure out what to say. And anyway my cynicism dictates that it doesn’t matter. na na blah blah”
“How do you know, you’ve never tried”
“I just know blah blah they don’t care blah blah”
“Well, you’ve definitely proved that not calling produces no results”
They don’t have to take away your power if you stop yourself from using it first. Don’t willingly give up your voice.
I’ve tried nothing and it hasn’t worked. I’m all out of ideas.
Being aware of local and state government is always a good thing to do and so much stuff is streamed since Covid. It makes you an informed voter and it’s where most of the stuff that impacts you will take place. Marijuana is one example of the impact of state law winning out despite federal law.
Reach out in any form you choose. Get to know them and what they stand for through their actions. Explain how things will effect you and people you know. Like anywhere else being an asshole is not the way to go. You might not change their mind but reminding them that everyday voters are paying attention has an effect even if you respectfully disagree.
I’ve been calling my representatives nonstop for a year to end their support for the genocide in Palestine. When is this supposed to start working?
These tactics are not always a guarantee to have things go your way, but they increase the chances. For phone calling, numbers of people calling in matter the most, particularly at strategic times, including: right after big announcements, right before a committee vote, right before a floor vote. It’s also more effective before dominant narratives have arisen around a topic and there is uncertainty on how things could shake out.
These tactics are not always a guarantee to have things go your way
See also: Atlanta city council voting for Cop City despite over two hundred people showing up at the meeting, in person, to speak against it. (Not to mention a petition for a referendum that got hundreds of thousands of signatures but was illegally withheld from the ballot anyway.)
You’re right that actually talking to your representatives works surprisingly often, but sometimes it really blatantly doesn’t.
That’s a nice fantasy. But the sooner you accept reality, the sooner you can begin to get to work on actual solutions, instead of playing along with the illusion.
Why not use multiple tactics? It’s not all or nothing and yes I’m certain Senate offices care about hearing from constituents, far more effective than simply doom scrolling.
The only benefit to attempting to push progressive policies and candidates through the existing system is to illustrate to people on the fence that system cannot be reformed, and it must be destroyed before it will represent us.
I’m for larger structural changes, but I disagree that rolling over and allowing fascists to get their way in the current system is acceptable. Let’s do both
If you think either of the only two parties allowed to run aren’t both fascists, you’re not paying attention.
Accelerationist bullshit
Realism.
That makes it sound like a secular version of thoughts and prayers.
Eh… For one, we know that our representatives exist in objective reality. So there’s that.
it doesn’t work, this trick is merely a psyop to shift the blame from the regime whores to plebs.
If you want your voice to be heard, get a lobbying like an adult alpha male.
LOL
Sure they do.
How do you know? Have you ever actually tried?
I think the lack of correlation between public opinion and government policy is more than satisfactory to demonstrate how much our federal legislators care about your phone calls, yes.
I think the lack of correlation between public opinion and government policy is more than satisfactory to demonstrate how much our federal legislators care about your phone calls, yes.
I hear you and acknowledge it is frustrating. But your assumption seems to be that your view is shared by all and thus “public opinion” aligns perfectly with what you believe or at least that a majority agrees with you. We all do this because we imagine our opinions to be sensible and hey, why wouldn’t other people share them? But they don’t.
I have. Quite a lot. I think they actually made things worse just to spite me.
Cool. I’m actually in the same boat. My House rep is a Republican fuckwit who’s been in office for a billion years, give or take. We agree on exactly nothing. I still call and email for the simple reason that even though he will always go with the majority opinion if I don’t do it then there will never be a chance for it to not be the majority opinion. I know it seems futile but it still important to represent our views and make sure those we disagree with aren’t the only thing they hear.
What do you even write in the email?
“Do what I want or else…”
Edit: It’s a joke.
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Some inside perspective:
You are talking to staff or an intern. You might be the hundredth call for the day. They’ve heard all kinds of shit, from long-winded conspiracy crazies to the most courteous and intelligent calls ever. Yelling at them or being a jerk will get you nowhere. Be prepared to state your case clearly and concisely. Your concern will indeed be noted and logged.
Do not call a congressperson that isn’t your own. They are not required to listen to you, you are not their constituent. Do not write a congressperson that is not your own. The letter is almost guaranteed to go straight into the trash.
The best letters go on the intern break room fridge to be enjoyed by all.
Even so, unfortunately the congressperson may not act in a way consistent with the majority of people’s calls and letters. Thank money and power plays in politics for that.
Yeah — pretty much this. Most people answering phones are interns. They’re given instructions to listen and be non-confrontational. They also won’t tell you what the congressperson’s view on the matter is. Ultimately, they have no power and just try to summarize what you said and put it in a computer program with your address so the office can mail you a letter from the Congressperson about the issue. These letters are generic to the topic you called about and generally try to say nothing controversial.
On rare occasions for really contentious issues, I saw them split the topic buckets into pro and con and send letters for each depending on whether you were for or against the thing you called about.
Mostly, I didn’t get the impression that Congress people pay much attention to phone calls. If the issue is contentious enough to divide the caller pool into pro/con, they might check a tally of the totals in each pool. But, for 99% of topics, they just send you a generic letter.
Also, a lot of these letters are full of bs. Congress people will often propose nice sounding bill names or cosponsor others that they can cite in these letters as evidence that they care. However, 99% of these bills go no where and often the congresspeople don’t even want them to. You’re upset about airplane noise over your city? “Well, I agree, that’s why I cosponsored the airplane noise reduction act.” Meanwhile, if that bill ever picked up steam the airline lobby would crush it and your congressperson would help them.
So, I don’t call my congressperson because I don’t really get the sense that it makes a difference. One thing I did see make a difference though was lobbyists. You see, they live right in Washington DC and rather than call, they schedule meetings with the actual paid staff or congressperson, not interns. They go right in their office and sit down and have a long chat. And, the staff have a big incentive to listen to them.
Most congressional staff are paid peanuts. They try to live off $25-45k/year in an expensive city and have 2 or 3 roommates. Some of them are often overqualified, holding law degrees and masters in their interest areas. So, once they get some experience and burn out of this life of poverty, guess who is happy to scoop them up? Yep, they go running right into the arms of those lobbyists and gladly take that $200k salary to go about fighting insulin price caps or defeating environmental regulations. It doesn’t even matter if they came into Washington, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed ready to take on these big corporate interests. By the time they’re 3-4 years in, realize they’re sick of eating ramen noodles, and the easiest way out is to call up some of those lobbyists and ask for a job, they do it. Oh you have a masters in agricultural policy with a specialization in organic farming? McDonald’s federal affairs office will hire you. I’ve seen it happen.
So, in a nutshell, legalised bribery. For which the answer should be higher wages, I suppose…
Yeah higher wages would be great, but it doesn’t happen because the media loves to rake the government over the coals for such things. But, you know whose salaries don’t get scrutinized? Lobbyists.
You want to pay people enough to be able to resist these influences. Doing the actual work of governing should pay better than lobbying.
We should even pay congresspeople more. They make $174,000/year. But, when you adjust for inflation, that’s a lot less than they used to make.
Do not call a congressperson that isn’t your own. They are not required to listen to you, you are not their constituent.
Unless they happen to be chairing a committee that you have an opinion on.
Then it’s fair game.
Counterpoint: call them anyway. Gum up the works. Change the mind of their interns. Send enough letters that it becomes a waste disposal problem.
Be annoying and difficult and make them work for every inch.
But also be nice. The interns are people too.
They don’t give a shit about that. They don’t pick up their phones.
They have automated email responses, and if you send them an email you are put on their campaign donation mailing lists.
If you can’t get in their face or them into your back pocket it is not worth it.
Revolution is required at this point.
Have you tried calling their phones? Sure some don’t pick up, but enough do.
I’m in favor of larger structural changes, but I’m not about to roll over and allow fascists to get everything they want in the current system. How many people do you expect to join a revolution if they won’t even be bothered to pick up a phone?
yawn. I think it’s pretty dead.
wake me when we live in a just society with laws that apply to all except for that one guy who basically says" fuck you im guilty so what" about everything.
otherwise these… whatcha call them? senators? they’re too busy insider trading, and making money off the laws they write
also lol at both parties will listen. llllooollll
Nazis rose to power in Germany and kept doing worse things because too many people had this defeatist attitude
That’s an incredibly reductionist and ahistorical explanation of how the Nazis overthrew the Weimar Republic…
Not to mention incredibly dismissive to the thousands of people who were literally battling brown shirts in the streets of Berlin leading up to the burning of the reichstag .
The Nazi didn’t rise to power because people had a defeatist attitude, it’s because the Nazi murdered their opposition, were perfectly fine with intimidating voters, and were backed by corporations and a significant portion of the population who blamed socialism for the economic slump of postwar Germany.
If you truly believe this, I highly suggest reading “The Death of Democracy” by Benjamin Hett. Phone calls aren’t going to sway the opinions of someone who fundamentally doesn’t think you should be alive.
Phone calls aren’t going to sway the opinions of someone who fundamentally doesn’t think you should be alive.
This is the hard lesson people will have to learn in the coming years. I hope I’m wrong, but things are about to get very bad for anyone who isn’t white, cis, hetero and male.
Yeap, I’m a product of an interracial marriage who is currently in an interracial marriage with someone who is openly bisexual, in the reddest state in America. I’m probably going to be pulling the rifles out of the attic for a good cleaning this weekend.
It’s too late, buddy; the fascists already control everything.
They do not, Trump’s appointments are not yet in place. It’s never too late to fight for democracy.
As a Canadian looking in, it’s hard not to agree with pearsaltchocolatebar. Although I do love your determination, you might end up having to fight for it more literally.
Resistance to authoritarian regimes takes many forms, I found the book Why Civil Resistance Works to be a very helpful analysis of different resistance movements and their tactics
I haven’t read this book, but I’m pretty skeptical of how they define nonviolent resistance and what makes a revolution “successful”
The Iranian Revolution, 1977–1979
- The First Palestinian Intifada, 1987–1992
- The Philippine People Power Movement, 1983–1986
- Why Civil Resistance Sometimes Fails: The Burmese Uprising, 1988–1990 Case Study Summary
Are the revolutions they are principally utilizing, and that makes me think this book isn’t exactly the most academically honest study around.
The Iranian revolution had battles in the streets and plenty of deadly clashes with the Shahs regime. It also led the the largest political massacre in the country’s history.
The Philippine People Power Movement
The yellow revolution funded militant groups, featured a helicopter attack on the president’s compound, and only didn’t devolve into a massacre of civilians because a marine commander refused to participate in the wholesale slaughter of tens of thousands of people.
The First Palestinian Intifada
Led to the deaths of over a thousand civilians and is a precursor the the genocide we are currently witnessing.
The Burmese Uprising
Started fairly similar to the Philippine uprising, except their military commanders were perfectly fine massacring civilians, with a death toll of 3k-10k people…
I am willing to give this a read, but I would also suggest other people read “Setting Sites” by Scott Crow as a counterpoint.
The book does acknowledge and analyze the violent and nonviolent aspects of the resistance movements in the case studies, and how they impacted each other. Thanks for the suggestion on Setting Sites
I’m not sure why you think his appointments are the issue here.
Because the appointments are the current issue that has some ability to be influenced. It helps to lean into issues that are making headlines, partly because reporters are reaching out to offices for their comments to get their stance on public record
Trump is planning on canceling sessions so he can do recess appointments.
Trump doesn’t have that power, he’s pressuring the Senate to do so. Thus calling Senators to stand up to these shenanigans is important.
Nazi has rose to power in Germany because liberals elected them.
No. No party received a majority in that election. The liberal government (Hindenburg) handed Hitler power. Sound familiar?
Then liberals indirectly elected him
I’m sure tons of people that voted for the liberal party in that election were very unhappy with Hindenburg’s decision to make Hitler Chancellor.
I could be mistaken, but I believe Hindenburg’s party could have formed a coalition government with the Communists/socialists/trade unionists to defeat the Nazis, but instead decided to hand power over to a fascist autocrat. If we had a (superior imo) parliamentary system, we may have had a similar opportunity (and more than two political parties).
So I would continue to make the distinction between the liberal voters, and the liberal government of the Weimar Republic.
YSK call your house rep. They’re more likely to answer. Also call your state reps first. Most issues are handled on a state level, not federal, and state house reps tend to be the most accessible.
Totally agree it’s important to engage all levels of government. But only the US Senate has the authority over nominations
Gotta love that this needs to be explained to American adults.
I tell you, they really love the uneducated here, folks.
Just called mine! I probably sounded like an ignoramus, but hopefully I said enough intelligible buzz words.
Awesome!
Unless you’re wealthy enough to own two or three senators they don’t give a flying fuck what any of us have to say.
I love threads like this. I find so many interesting people to block
