The West County Democrats board has been getting daily requests about how to be involved in resisting the destruction of our democracy. While there are organized protests forming, legislative actions being taken and lawsuits flooding our judicial system, there are concrete things YOU can do help fellow Americans defeat the billionaire-backed authoritarian regime taking a sledgehammer to our country.
The first recommendation is to raise your voice in opposition in any public venue you can- write opinion pieces in online forums, offer letters to the editor, post on social media, host civil conversations with friends and family. Commercial news outlets have been dominated by conservative disinformation for too long. There is no longer a fairness doctrine nor any expectation of credibility in the popular press. It’s up to us to punch through this clutter to change minds and hearts. If you’re worried about what to say, trust that as a still-rational citizen, you have a better command of the facts and the real issues that face Americans, than any MAGA leaning politician.
The second recommendation is to express yourself directly to our elected officials, routinely. They work for us, regardless of their political stripe. While Republicans studiously avoid interacting with constituents directly, they all have staff responsible for taking those calls and acting. Your request and your comments will be summarized with others and presented to the legislator. This is the best vehicle for informing our elected officials of the mood of constituents and the approval (or lack thereof) of their work.
Here is some advice from a high-level Senate staffer.
You should NOT be bothering with online petitions or emailing.
1) The best thing you can do to be heard and get your congressperson to pay attention is to have face-to-face time — if they have town halls, go to them. Go to their local offices. If you’re in DC, try to find a way to go to an event of theirs. 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. The louder and more vocal and present you can be at those the better.
2) But those in-person events don’t happen every day. So, the absolute most important thing that people should be doing every day is calling.
YOU SHOULD MAKE 6 CALLS A DAY:
Two 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 gets immediately ignored, and letters get thrown in the trash (unless you have a particularly strong emotional story — but even then, it’s not worth the time it took you to craft that letter).
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. She said that 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. In the last 8 years, Republicans have called, and Democrats haven’t.
So, 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, but they might. 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. Don’t leave a message (unless the office doesn’t pick up at all — then you can — but it’s better to talk to the staffer who first answered than leave a message for the specific staffer in charge of your topic).
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, 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 Linda McMahon,” 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. So, focus on 1-2 per day. Ideally something that will be voted on/taken up in the next few days, but it doesn’t really matter — even if there’s not a vote coming up in the next week, call anyway. It’s important that they just keep getting calls.
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… ” Don’t leave any ambiguity.
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, so even if they’re really sick of you, they’ll be gone in 6 weeks.
From experience since the election: If you hate being on the phone & feel awkward (which is a lot of people) don’t worry about it — there are a bunch of scripts (Indivisible has some, there are lots of others floating around these day). After a few days of calling, it starts to feel a lot more natural.
Contact Information
To reach your two Senators:
Eric Schmitt’s DC office is (202) 224-5721 and his St. Louis office is (314)-230-7263
Josh Hawley’s DC office is (202) 224-6154 and his St. Louis office is (314)-354-7060
To reach your Congresswoman:
Ann Wagner’s DC office is (202) 225-1621 and her Ballwin office is (636) 779-5449
If you live in places other that Missouri District 2, you can look up your Representative’s contact information here.