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Eagle88 · #13 (**permalink**) 10-26-2009

Quote:

Originally Posted by Politico

Dear Senator ______,

I have tried on numerous occasions to contact you personally, requested times to call you where I could have at least 15 minutes of your time. I have asked if I could meet with you in person in regards to problems I see in our government. All of these requests have gone unanswered and I was even told you do not meet with people, or that you are booked for months in advance. I asked if I could set an appointment several months later and was told no. Every time I have emailed you, I receive a form letter with a stamped signiture in the mail. I've actually received the same one twice.

You are refusing to represent me. You have no idea what my message is.

If I was a large donor, or a large corporation, you would meet with me probably this afternoon (yes even on a Sunday).

This is no longer a Democracy, this is a Corporatocracy. If this message does somehow reach you (which I doubt it will), I ask you to make a movement to stop calling the government a Democracy, because we "the people" mean nothing to you and you're friends in Washington.

You debate healthcare when the real question is, of the millions of dollars worth of lobbying and donations that the insurance companies spent, how much influence will they have bought? Because if I can't sway you either way on the bill, you should at least be dignified enough to admit who did sway you and with what.

Democracy died in a court reporters hand written notes in 1886. You and the rest of Washington commit Treason to the American people every day you do not reverse the power of Corporations in our government.

- one of the powerless.......

EDIT: only sent to one senator, the other was appointed and I have not tried to contact him more than once.

Send it to both, the worst they can do is ignore you and that isn't really any different then what they are doing now is it?

Having interned in a Senate office for a short period of time I can tell you what the basic process is (or at least was for the Senator I interned for). The staff will receive it, make a digital copy of it and enter it into their computer system with both the digital copy, a short description of the just of what you are saying and an assigned category code (most senate offices have a large list of categories). The Senator will then have the ability to read either the short description entered by his staff or the digital scanned copy they made of it. The scanned copy is an exact copy of your letter so it won't lost anything but the short description might miss some of the details. The decision is his but from what I saw a personal letter or a personal email (not a form letter or form email mind you, Senate offices tend to just keep tallies of those) is more likely to be read than a lot of other forms of communication. It's even better than a phone call as phone calls often lose some of their value as they are transmitted from staff member to staff member up to the Senator (imagine a game of telephone). You may then receive a response, usually written by a member of the Senator's staff either authorized by the Senator or with the Senator reading it over after wards and approving it. Then they will take it to a machine that signs the Senator's signature to it and mail it to you.

Going in person is not really an option (although I don't know about DC offices as I was in a state office) because the Senator is rarely there. I was an intern for about 5 months and he was only in the state office maybe 3-4 times. It makes some sense as most of the time they are in DC Mon-Fri and then tend to take Sat and Sun off. Also, they have multiple state offices. Although I still wish there was a way for them to keep better touch with the people. I think part of the reason they lose touch is due to the fact that they are completely surrounded by Washington DC almost all the time and are rarely actually amongst the people that voted them in. I'm not justifying them though as I am also upset with many a Senator.