Hacker News Reader

Comment by tlrobinson | Hacker News Reader

Are paper letters still taken more seriously than emails by most congresspeople?

I try not to generalize, I know that my representatives take postal mail more seriously than email (I've asked them) but understand the caveat that what politicians say isn't necessarily a reliable fact :-)

And I have received written responses from postal mail but I don't recall seeing any personalized email.

Thanks for this info. I'll actually send a handwritten letter to my two Senators and congresswoman today.

(I'm the kind of person who sends hand-written Christmas cards, so this isn't that much of a stretch for me)

This is because writing letters and making phone calls takes (sometimes marginal, but still) more effort than sending an email.

Why does the amount of effort I put into communicating with my elected representatives matter? If my view is worth taking seriously, it should be taken seriously regardless of whether I email or snail mail him.

After all, it's not much effort to vote for his opponent at the next election.

This is why men should Fedex engagement rings to their prospective fiancées. After all, it's the thought that counts not whether the act involves a romantic evening culminating in a bent-knee proposal vs. tearing open a delivery box alone in her apartment.

Your example is invalid because the power dynamic is reversed. If someone doesn't like the way you give them an engagement ring, they can ditch you and get another fiance. But in the case of mailing your Congressperson, it's you that can ditch the current Congressperson by electing a new one.

They probably correlate letter writing with voting, or we imagine they do. Writing a letter takes effort, so does voting. Old people write letters more and vote more. Etc.

My point wasn't about the power dynamic but rather the perception of effort/thought/care. Even though the message is the same, whether it's "Will you marry me?" or "Will you consider this political stance?", the perception around the delivery of the message is still taken into account.

Writing a physical letter introduces a barrier of effort which separates a two minute slap-out-an-email rant from a carefully composed and considered letter. Imagine if commenting on YouTube required writing a letter? The quality of comments would increase by many orders of magnitude.

I am so going to suggest that on the YouTube help desk.

It would make for a great new feature to be announced, say... at the beginning of April. :)

Because your representatives are old and suspect email isn't a real thing, or that the same person could just email 50 times (and that somehow the same can't be done with the regular post). They are also looking for any excuse to totally ignore your ass so they can get back to abdicating power to special interests.

Yes, as are phone calls.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com