this post was submitted on 17 Aug 2024
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Citizen lobbying is incredibly effective. A lot less people contact their congress person than people envision. If you can get a few hundred people to call or write your representative about something it absolutely can change a vote. Money isn't the only thing that talks, politicians ultimately just want to get reelected.
Is it though? Everytime I joined a movement to call our local reps it accomplished nothing.
The key is who you're lobbying. If you're in a hard right or hard left district with a rep that is inflexible your lobbying will be ineffective. But every vote has a handful of politicians that have no strong opinions or ideological grounds on that vote and are movable. With proper organizing one can target those districts and call citizens of those districts to then call their representative.
But as citizens who haven't organized, if everyone contacts their representative at least some of those communications will be with the politicians that can be moved.
I've done the former and the latter and been part of bills getting passed that otherwise probably wouldn't have. Cynicism is the strongest barrier to progress. It doesn't mean it will work every time, but it absolutely works.
Ah, yeah, I am a leftist deep in neo-nazi territory (South Dakota.)
So once again it feels like American democracy doesn't exist outside of swing states. All the solid red and blue states are effectively 1 party systems.
Well it's not completely hopeless. One of the primary things keeping those places as Republican as they are is young non-voters. South Dakota is not about to flip parties, but it could improve greatly if people didn't give up and still voted, especially in off year elections when a lot of Dems stay home.