Yet they cling to some kind of phone call cargo cult thing where if enough people like them make phone calls - the senators will hear them. It's like "Field of Dreams" I guess.

a fuckload of phone calls and physical mail does make a difference if they start doing the math and get worried about not having votes when they want to get re-elected, it's just really hard to actually get that much political engagement from burgerlanders in a non-election year. it's a little cargo-culty but it's not as feckless as the no kings shit.

[–] InevitableSwing@hexbear.net 7 points 1 week ago

By having the vote on Sunday - Schumer made phone calls 100% irrelevant. But I guess if panicked dem voters had been calling for weeks - maybe that would slightly worry the DC dems. In this bifurcated sportsball reality - I don't think the DC dems care very much about angry voters.

[–] ClathrateG@hexbear.net 3 points 1 week ago (1 children)

a fuckload of phone calls and physical mail does make a difference

source?

[–] robot_dog_with_gun@hexbear.net 1 points 1 week ago (1 children)

SOPA and PIPA in 2012 is the one i remember. there might have been a couple since then but it's not super common

[–] ClathrateG@hexbear.net 1 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

mmmm sopapilla

is there anything that says letters and calls specifically influenced decisions? I would have thought the physical protests and even the wikipedia blackout would be much larger factors

[–] robot_dog_with_gun@hexbear.net 1 points 1 week ago (1 children)

i'm not sure how possible to know that is. i do know that liberal in-person protesting has never accomplished anything without a lingering threat of violence, and that the dinosaurs in congress don't know what wikipedia or the internet are.

[–] ClathrateG@hexbear.net 1 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Yeah I guess actual hard evidence wouldn't exsist I was thinking like a statement from a politician like 'the amount of calls my office received from citizens on X issue made me revaluate my stance on it'

Err are you saying calls and letters are only effective if the include threats of violence?

[–] robot_dog_with_gun@hexbear.net 1 points 1 week ago

Err are you saying calls and letters are only effective if the include threats of violence?

no i mean like why the 1960s civil rights movement worked (for a few decades anyway) but shit like no kings, occupy wallstreet, or the 2000s anti-war protests in the US didn't do anything