Whenever I send emails or snail mail to representatives and senators, I
usually get a reply. The replies are of two types: (1) a form letter
that is related to the topic, but is simply a restatement of the
congressperson's position, with commentary that is designed to persuade
me to that position, and (2) a generic letter that is a thank you for my
concern -- which might have been about anything on earth. Such epistles
usually end with a statement as to the congressperson's great
appreciation of me and my interests in his or her reelection (and
please send money). I have no congressperson or senator I wish to see
reelected.
I am interested in political history, and have read biographies of a
number of the more powerful senators over the years. One of the most
powerful ever, a man who was Franklin Roosevelt's protege, was Majority
Leader of the Senate, and became president, employed a cadre of junior
staffers to draft reply letters tailored to the constituent's concerns.
He insisted that the reply had to be in the mail within a day of receipt
of original letter. However, he personally never saw the reply. So,
though we don't get that sort of "service" today, I'm not sure things
are any worse than they were then.
The most important thing about letters to congress is the tally that
staff members record, for or against a position, issue, or bill.
Nuances are meaningless. I know this from acquaintance with
congressional staff members and having worked in campaigns.
David McNeely
On Sun, Nov 8, 2009 at 6:12 AM, Cara Lin Bridgman wrote:
In the past 10 years of mailing letters to senators and
representatives, I only got 2-page form letters in response. These
form letters were only very generally related to the topic. They were
not responses to my concerns. Not only that, but the form letters
were clearly one way these congressfolk tried to 'catapult the
propaganda' (Bush Jr 24 May 2005).
For several years, now, I've been sent emails by the president and
various congressfolk. I've had to classify them as spam because they
really seem to be out-put only.
CL
malcolm McCallum wrote:
Unfortunately, this is not the norm
this year. I sent emails to a couple of representatives from both
parties and the President's office this year and each time got a
computer generated response. The worst part about these was that the
responses in almost every case delivered information that had little
to nothing to do with what I contacted them about.
The point here is that traditionally, a personal comment was paid
attention too. Recently, I have to ask if most politicians are
paying
any attention to anything other than polls. This question does not
reflect party lines, in fact, it transcends them.
--
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Cara Lin Bridgman cara....@msa.hinet.net
P.O. Box 013 Shinjhuang http://megaview.com.tw/~caralin
Longjing Township http://www.BugDorm.com
Taichung County 43499
Taiwan Phone: 886-4-2632-5484
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