The illusion of impact by writing to your congressman is really just that, a proverbial carrot in front of the donkey of democracy.
This is the hopelessness I'm talking about in the GP. It was edgy and clever to despair, but it's really for losers. Let's get serious; people are dying, democracy is dying; our predecessors managed to achieve great things and there's no excuse for us to sit on the sidelines and whine.
The only way forward is to leverage our economic power (by forming unions or organizing a general strike). That’s the leverage we have against power, but ultimately a lot of what that looks like is lying down and doing nothing.