http://www.feinstein.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/washington-...?
I'd laugh if it wasn't so sad. Call and that's it. Your 'representatives' are not your representatives. There is no pressure that you can place on them.
I mean, I like your enthusiasm, just wondering how come you didn't adjust it with reality of these days.
There is an excellent write up of how this works and why it works from a former congressional aide: https://qz.com/836737/fomer-congressional-staffer-twitter-ti...
Take action!
Write your senators numbers on a note by your desk, put them in your phone as contacts. Add your house representatives as well. When you hear about an important issue, make a quick call. Ask them to represent you on upcoming issues. Thank them for their position on issues you support, let them know you are disappointed in them for things you oppose.
An incumbent has over a 90% chance of being reelected until they decide not to run anymore. They literally do not need to care after they've told whatever lies they needed to tell to get elected the first time.
You're assuming that public officials are automata that don't suffer from risk aversion, don't need to raise money in close races, and don't change their behaviour based on whether they have public opinion behind them. I wouldn't bet on that being true.
They do not need to care about you.
Talking about Feinstein in particular -
* January 17, 2011 Approval rating measured at 43%
* May 12, 2011, Feinstein co-sponsored PIPA
* PIPA gets mass blow back
* 2012 Reelected
* 2013 moves to continue mass survailance
* After the 2016 FBI–Apple encryption dispute, Feinstein, along with Richard Burr, sponsored a bill that would be likely to criminalize all forms of strong encryption
* 2016 Reelected
She knows she doesn't need to give a damn about your issues with mass surveillance.
With today's advances in statistics and technology, people could be polled for their opinions on issues by hundreds of independent and transparent public polling companies. Just like jury duty but easier and on your phone. You can't buy all the people all the time. It's too expensive. But you can perpetuate the system that engulfs their representatives all of the time.
When you start to meet people in positions of power you realise that they're not a bunch of sleazy villains, they're complicated people who (for the most part) think they're doing the right thing in a difficult and often contradictory environment.
I can understand if it is a super complicated trade treaty, but something straightforward like "don't spy on your people, that too with not much oversight etc" - is that too hard to understand?
Confirmation bias goes a long long way.
Take gerrymandering, which is as undemocratic is it gets. If you already believed yourself to be one of the 'good guys', it wouldn't be hard to convince yourself that gerrymandering (as a tool of last resort) is an acceptable way to hold at bay the forces of moral degeneracy... especially when other 'good guys' tell you its okay, and you can find some character flaw or weakness in your opponent that you can use to licence your own.
Confirmation bias is well documented, but check out Daniel Effron's work on 'moral licencing'. He showed that people tend to horse-trade ethics, excusing biased or self-serving behaviour with the points scored from virtuous behaviour... one example being an experiment where the subjects exhibited increased racial bias when they'd previously been given an opportunity to state that they'd voted for Obama.
2016 Reelected
That is to say - may it's that high because they respond to people who call in.
This mechanism - calling your congressperson, threats to replace them in the next primaries, showing up to townhalls, etc, is precisely how the Tea Party seized power. The republicans they didn't replace fell in line with their agenda.
Just don't expect elected officials to pay attention to you if you aren't a part of their voting district.
What a weird coincidence. Someone should tell them that political activism is pointless.
Calling and showing up counts.
You call.
You show up everywhere they talk.
You run against them. etc
The amount of apathy in america is impressive.
"Eh, it'll never work" seems to be the rallying cry of today's america.
I'm sorry but that's not realistic, people have lives to live and survive through.
Trump is president because the US has an idiotic system that reduced the effectiveness of peoples votes for living in popular places.
Besides, we were talking about representatives, the people do not vote for the President, states do.
It's not all out of your hands and in the hands of "big money" or whatever boogeyman of the day is.
But feel free to state your case for why outsized spending on political influence is a good and/or neutral thing for society.
So I write letters that say I'm contributing to her political opponents. You can do this if you live in another state. And money talks louder than votes.
http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/senate-confirms-mike-pompe...
They were the first internet company to publish a transparency report, for example [1]. Now copied by all the big players.
I remember them fighting back over a decade ago against government requests for search data, when others simply complied. [2]
[1] https://www.google.com/transparencyreport/?authuser=1
[2] https://googleblog.blogspot.com/2006/02/response-to-doj-moti...
Hey, no fair! That's our panopticon, not yours!
Also I have my doubts that she will run for re-election. Garcetti will probably take a shot.