We are not helpless!

We don't have to wait until 2010 to change what is taking place in Washington.  The Founding Fathers provided a means for us to have impact.

I have a plan.  Here's my thinking.  See if you agree.

In the recent past, voters have stopped various actions in their tracks by flooding Congress with emails and phone calls of protest.  But your job isn't done after one phone call, or one email.  We must stay after them, with repeated contacts, so they hear the message over and over again.

Every single Congressman is up for re-election in 2010.  Like all politicians, they have to be starting to worry about that election.  Believe me, if Congressman Gonzales gets a thousand emails from his constituents on an issue, he will have to give serious thought to his votes.  Our right to dissent, to appeal to the government for the redress of grievances...that is the tool given us by the Founders. It's time we start using it.

We need to get organized.  We need to be able to focus our efforts on specific Congressmen and Senators who's vote we want to change.  We need a database of thousands, hundreds of thousands, maybe millions of fellow conservatives who are willing to write and call Congress as often as they can, and when called upon especially.  We need to be able to bury a Congressman or Senator under emails and phone calls when an issue arises and we need their vote.  We need to be able to produce that flood of opinion within twenty-four hours of the beginning of the incident.

The traditional battlefield for political issues has changed.  The newspapers have been marginalized or are going out of business.  Even the liberals don't trust NBC News or the New York Times any more.  President Barack Obama didn't win this election because of what the newspapers or NBC News said, although their drooling cooperation certainly helped.  The liberals won this election on the Internet.

The number of spam emails supporting President Barack Obama smacking into my spam-filter during the election brought the horror movie "The Birds" to mind, with the seagulls thumping against the side of the house.  You must have gotten some of that tonnage as well.  The numbers are disputed, but there have been claims that the majority of the funds Barack Obama used to win his election came from sources on the Internet.  The cyberworld is the ultimate meeting place.  The liberals knew this.  It is a lesson we had better learn...and fast.

My plan:

I ask for four things.

1.  Send me your name, email, state and 10-digit zip code*.  If you already know it, it would be handy to know your Congressional district and Congressman.  That will save me the time of looking it up.

2.  Forward this email to at least two of your friends who have similar viewpoints and who could be depended upon to send the emails to Congress.  More is better.  None is OK.  The people you contact need not be local.  We need this effort to be nation-wide.

3.  Watch the news.  Listen to the radio.  When  you hear a story that incites you, write an email to your Congressman.  Email the rest of us and let us know that you have.

4.  Promise to send emails, at least, and make  phone calls if possible, when the network asks you to.

*Um...I had to look.  You can find your 10-digit zip code on just about every junk mail envelope you've ever gotten.

Now the details.  I won't put your name on the network list unless you respond to me.  You have to send me an email telling me you want to sign up.  So must each of the people you contact.

If you don't ever want to hear from me or this network again, it's easy; press the Trash button now.  As I collect email addresses and organize them by Congressional district, I'll send you that list, so you'll know who is on your side in your voting area.  If we're lucky and this develops a volume I can't handle, I will ask for volunteers to help.  When something comes up that I, or you, think we need to bring the force of the network to bear, I, or you, will contact us.  And Congress will be able to swim on the cyber-sea of our emails.

How to write to your Congressmen?  Go to congress.org.  On the left-hand side, down a little, is a small box labeled "My Elected Officials."  Key in your ten-digit zip-code and click.  Follow the instructions.  It's a good idea to have your letter ready, pre-written in Notepad, ready to go.  You won't be able to copy/paste from Word or other high-end word processor.  If you want (or like me, need to.) use Word, etc, cut 'n paste first from the word processor to Notepad, then to the letter area on Congress.org.

Do not copy your letter from someone else's.  Among the reasons it used to be possible to ignore the Internet is the same reason we knew in our hearts that petitions were a waste of time in high school.  They don't prove solidarity, only the possession of a few seconds to sign your name.  Feel free to use the ideas, or the logic, but not the copy/paste function.  

You don't have to get fancy.  I love to write.  I'm pretty good at it.  But, truth be told, I probably reduce my own impact somewhat by going on like I do.  Keep it simple, straight-forward, and direct.

"I oppose your position on... " Done.  

Because the truth of the matter is that your Congressperson will almost certainly not actually read your letter.  As a practical matter, let's get real.  They get thousands of emails a day.  Read some of the letters posted on Congress.org.  They can get pretty abusive.  Some staffer, or staffers, have the thankless job of reading those letters, figuring out what issue is involved and on which side the writer stands, then making a check mark on a tally sheet.  Select a boilerplate response, hit reply, send, boom.  Move on to the next one.  

Now and then, you do actually get under the eyes of your Representative.  So be polite, even if you are howling mad.  You want to vent?  Vent to me, or on the blogs, or to others in the network.  Being rude to the person will just get you ignored and if you manage to write the wrong thing, investigated for threatening an elected official.  Not good.

Don't expect a personal answer, or even an answer that is connected to your email.  Don't think of this is personal one-on-one communication with your Representative.  Think of it more as a vote.  One of thousands if we do this right.

Check out these sites: townhall.com  newsmax.com  and politico.com

All three are sources of news I trust.  You'll have to make up your own mind.

One last thing...

We may not have much time.  President Barack Obama is working fast to get his agenda into law, stampeding over the conservatives in Congress and ignoring his campaign pledges for transparency.  He's pushing hard because he knows that we'll eventually get organized and stop him.

Sign up for this or not, but you must do something...soon.
Contact us at the Conservative America Network (C.A.N.)
bnoman@satx.rr.com