Here's a special blog for anyone who wants to try and make a difference. I made calls this morning and will do so every day. It takes 5 minutes. - ***Legislators receive "Call reports" Daily, which has a LOT more influence on them than on-line petitions. Learn more here!!
HOW TO FIND YOUR LEGISLATORS
FIND YOUR REPRESENTATIVE (input ZIP Code): https://www.house.gov/representatives/find-your-representative
FIND YOUR CONGRESS MEMBER (Input ZIP Code): https://www.congress.gov/members/find-your-member
From the ACLU FB page:
FOR THOSE OF YOU LOOKING TO TURN YOUR ANGER INTO ACTION, here's some advice from a high-level staffer for a Senator.
You should NOT be bothering with online petitions or emailing.
1) IN-PERSON - The best thingis face-to-face time OR Calls. — Attend any Townhalls, Go to their local offices. Go to the "mobile offices" that their staff hold periodically (all these times are located on each congressperson's website). When you go, ask questions. A lot of them. And push for answers.
in-person events don't happen every day. So, the most important thing to do DAILY \ is calling.
2) MAKE 6 CALLS A DAY: 2 each (DC office and your local office) to your 2 Senators & your 1 Representative. The staffer was very clear that any sort of online contact often gets ignored, and letters often Trashed. Calls are what all the congresspeople pay attention to.
* Every single day, the Senior Staff and the Senator get a report of the 3 most-called-about topics for that day at each of their offices (in DC and local offices), and exactly how many people said what about each of those topics.
* They're also sorted by zip code and area code.
* Republican callers generally outnumber Democrat callers 4-1, and when it's a particular issue that single-issue-voters pay attention to (like gun control, or planned parenthood funding, etc...), it's often closer to 11-1, and that's recently pushed Republican congressmen on the fence to vote with the Republicans.
*WHEN YOU CALL -
A) When calling the DC office, ask for the Staff member in charge of whatever you're calling about ("Hi, I'd like to speak with the staffer in charge of Healthcare, please") — local offices won't always have specific ones. If you get transferred to that person, awesome. If you don't, that's ok — ask for that person's name, and then just keep talking to whoever answered the phone.
B) Give them your zip code. They won't always ask for it, but make sure you give it to them, so they can mark it down. Extra points if you live in a zip code that traditionally votes for them, since they'll want to make sure they get/keep your vote.
C) If you can, make it personal "I voted for you in the last election and I'm worried/happy/whatever" or "I'm a teacher, and I am appalled by Betsy DeVos," or "as a single mother" or "as a white, middle class woman," or whatever.
D) Pick 1-2 specific things per day to focus on. Don't rattle off everything you're concerned about — they're figuring out what 1-2 topics to mark you down for on their lists.
E) Be clear on what you want — "I'm disappointed that the Senator..." or "I want to thank the Senator for their vote on... " or "I want the Senator to know that voting in ___ way is the wrong decision for our state because...
F) They may get to know your voice/get sick of you — it doesn't matter.
The people answering the phones generally turn over every 6 weeks anyway
BEST WAY TO PUT IN YOUR PHONE-
Put the 6 numbers in your phone (all under P – Politician.) An example is McCaskill MO, Politician McCaskill DC, Politician Blunt MO, etc., which makes it really easy to click down the list each day.
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