Something I keep hearing, over and over: “My vote doesn’t matter!”
It’s either that or another similar message, like, They’re all bought and paid for anyway, or One person can’t change things, or even I’m too busy.
Nonsense! I’m writing today to tell you not only that change is possible, not only that you have the power to help, but exactly how you can do this.
The Basics
It’s ludicrous to think that voting every couple of years is the sole duty of the citizen in a democracy. In our representative form of government, we also have the ability to influence our Senators and Representatives. We can donate time or money to their campaigns, volunteer to help in their constituent offices, hold meetings, plant lawn signs, and so on. If we’re passionate enough, we can even take one for the team and run for office.
That’s power.
With power comes responsibility.
You can change things. Change needs to happen. Nobody else seems to be doing it. That means you have to. Yes, you. It’s your right, which also means it’s your moral duty. Congratulations; that’s what happens when you live in a free country.
The good news? It’s actually pretty easy to do some things. It’ll cost you about ten minutes.
Send an Email
Every Member of Congress keeps an open inbox for constituents. There’s at least one person on their staffs whose job includes reading the messages and passing along any that aren’t written in ALL CAPS, full of disgusting profanity and insults, or what have you. There’s actually a very real chance that a well-written message will be read by your representative, who will likely draft a personal response. (Full disclosure: Some of them may prefer the profanity and/or insults. Congress has all types in it, and far be it from us to kink-shame. -Editor)
More importantly, now that opinion polls are losing some of their credibility, politicians rely more and more on their inboxes to tell them what their constituency thinks about any given issue. Corporate donors fund voter access by buying ads, sure, but when you send a message you’re there for free. They don’t need an ad, which means you’re getting around the root cause of corruption.
https://www.house.gov/representatives/find-your-representative
https://www.senate.gov/senators/
Here’s the text of an email I sent today. If you agree with me, you’re welcome to copy it word for word and send it yourself; if you disagree, draft your own. (There’s only just so far I’m willing to go on your behalf, at least without getting paid for it.)
GUN CONTROL
WRT the Lewiston shooter and gun laws: There’s a movement to ban guns right now, but this guy spent two weeks in an army mental hospital. He was clearly a danger to the public, he turned himself in for hearing voices that told him to shoot up his own base, and yet he wasn’t held or disarmed. We need laws and funding to make sure that stops happening.
Mental hospitals in this country don’t have anywhere near enough beds. They’ve been horribly underfunded since the 1980s, when bad press got about half of them shut down. Before that they were merely criminally underfunded.
Today, the mentally ill regularly take up cells in jails, beds in hospitals, the occasional hotel room rented by the city, and as a last resort tents under the nearest overpass. I say “last resort” because it’s illegal for jails and hospitals to evict them without a mental hospital bed for them to be sent to. Say what you will about that law, the simple fact that people are being stockpiled where they don’t belong should tell us something.
We need ten times the capacity we presently have.
And nobody wants to spend the money on it. They’d rather blame the Other Party and rake in donations and votes.
Here’s your opportunity to show me: What kind of politician are you? Would you rather play blame games or try to solve problems?
A lot of people spend their time on social media complaining about the Other Party and how they’re to blame for everything from homelessness to the latest TikTok dance craze. And that’s fair enough; you’ve got free speech in this country. There’s an amendment and everything.
What isn’t fair, though, is if all you do is bitch and can’t be bothered to even send an email.
It is the very least you can do.
So. What’s stopping you?
You can send cash to PayPal in order to help support us, set up a subscription donation at Patreon, or buy us a coffee. It won’t get you off the hook for sending an email, but at least it’ll show your heart’s in the right place.
The Not Fake News 