Writing your Congress critter or other elected official

[Opti]

I have a letter from my congressman that I plan to reply to. I have not written to a federal official yet barring the two times I emailed the WH about the affordable care act. I'm guessing I want to keep it short even if I have so much to say. The letter references the ACA and two hypothetical households. One a family of four making $120K and a 60 year old couple making $60K. Where is the example of a single person household or even the recognition of the fact that roughly 50% of the households make less than median income.

I'm not in that letter, and that reminds me that most reps are out of touch with their actual voters and people they represent. I remember in another thread finding info that single person households, as a percentage, are more common than either couples, or families (lowest percentage of American households). Not all of us are born into a family, although I was, and not all of us will have a family before we shed this mortal coil. (So far a big no for me.) 

So share some nice diplomatic verbiage. Those who read me know I tend to blunt and matter of fact over gentle diplomacy, and the latter is a benefit in the land of politicians.

Here's a URL for NJ as a whole. Did not realize we are over 9 million in population, as Worldometer keeps showing NJ as 8.8 Million.

www.census.gov/quickfacts/NJ#:~:text=People%20%20%20%20Population%20%20%20,%20%2031.3%25%20%2041%20more%20rows%20

[Opti]

Well my search skills on this board for posts still suck. I tried looking for single household and did not find the post I am looking for. I did find two posts from 2016 though. One that is more diplomatic and the other my annoyed sarcastic style.


ymam.proboards.com/post/2536457
Oops, the sarcastic one is from 2014-

ymam.proboards.com/post/1987105

[billisonboard]

Goal? I am big believer in making sure I know what I want to accomplish. Then it is a question of what is the best way to get there. Know your audience. What you send will be seen by a junior staffer. They will decide if it is worth sharing with a senior staffer, who might share it with your elected official.

The letter you received was likely drafted by a senior staffer. So a goal might be to get that junior staffer to mention at some meeting to that senior staffer they might include examples about people like you in future communications. Approach might be you feel left out of being personally considered. Might play well with an under-appreciated low person in the pecking order. I would guess the long term goal is more that they consider people in your situation when it comes to legislation but the process of them figuring out you as an example in communications would help.

My communications with my congresswoman are through her website system. I operate on the assumption that they are saved into a file with my name. I keep messages short and to my point. These are busy people. I praise on the rare occasion I can so it isn't all just negative (she is very conservative so this is difficult). I don't want to get a reaction of "Oh, him again."

[Opti]

Goal? That he and other start directing their missives to the people they actually serve. If my memory is correct, the majority is single person households and the minority is family households, i.e. nuclear family of three plus people versus college roommates splitting the cost of a rental home.

The other goal is to direct him and others to start addressing the bottom 40% as they actually are and as they actually live as opposed to a perception of how they exist. While I think mayoral candidate Yang has lost his way, he was one of the few who actually got the reporter question right on median house price in Brooklyn. Mr housing, aka Shaun whatever with connections to Obama was one of the idiots who guessed between $80 to $100K. If you are that out of touch with reality, there is no way you are going to push for the right thing let alone craft legislation for it. So part of it will be informational with current NJ stats and my suggestions on the American Rescue Plan and ACA.
(The letter referenced the latter two and he's probably fishing for opinions on them.)

[billisonboard]

Sounds like a very challenging goal for finding a diplomatic tone with which to convey it. Good luck.

[bean29]

I don't think Congress in interested in "listening" to anything that does not fit what the lobbyists are paying for.

I do believe the Republicans are profiling their voters, and I don't want to be on any of their hit lists when they take over.  I think after the next election "It's all over but the crying".

[happyhoix]

My congressperson from hell, Marge Taylor Greene, sent out a mass mailing asking me if I would send her a pretty photo taken someplace in my county so she could pick all the prettiest and hang them on her wall in Congress.

The most polite thing I could think to say was to congratulate her on finding something positive to fill her time, since she got kicked out of all the committees. Everything else I wanted to send were some variety of lewd/offensive photo for her to put on her wall.

Figured I’d get in trouble with the feds, so I didn’t actually do anything. Sigh.

[dondub]

Jun 11, 2021 15:49:20 GMT -5 happyhoix said:

My congressperson from hell, Marge Taylor Greene, sent out a mass mailing asking me if I would send her a pretty photo taken someplace in my county so she could pick all the prettiest and hang them on her wall in Congress.

The most polite thing I could think to say was to congratulate her on finding something positive to fill her time, since she got kicked out of all the committees. Everything else I wanted to send were some variety of lewd/offensive photo for her to put on her wall.

Figured I’d get in trouble with the feds, so I didn’t actually do anything. Sigh.

There’s always tomorrow.😎

[billisonboard]

Jun 11, 2021 15:41:44 GMT -5 bean29 said:

I don't think Congress in interested in "listening" to anything that does not fit what the lobbyists are paying for.

I do believe the Republicans are profiling their voters, and I don't want to be on any of their hit lists when they take over.  I think after the next election "It's all over but the crying".

If they are creating a list and I'm not already on it, they or I aren't trying hard enough.

[djAdvocate]

Jun 11, 2021 16:18:51 GMT -5 dondub said:

Jun 11, 2021 15:49:20 GMT -5 happyhoix said:

My congressperson from hell, Marge Taylor Greene, sent out a mass mailing asking me if I would send her a pretty photo taken someplace in my county so she could pick all the prettiest and hang them on her wall in Congress.

The most polite thing I could think to say was to congratulate her on finding something positive to fill her time, since she got kicked out of all the committees. Everything else I wanted to send were some variety of lewd/offensive photo for her to put on her wall.

Figured I’d get in trouble with the feds, so I didn’t actually do anything. Sigh.

There’s always tomorrow.😎

just make it sufficiently abstract:

www.reddit.com/r/vinyl/comments/1uqpsc/my_copy_of_the_controversial_tom_z%C3%A9s_todos_os/

[Opti]

Jun 11, 2021 15:41:44 GMT -5 bean29 said:

I don't think Congress in interested in "listening" to anything that does not fit what the lobbyists are paying for.

I do believe the Republicans are profiling their voters, and I don't want to be on any of their hit lists when they take over.  I think after the next election "It's all over but the crying".

This is the guy-

malinowski.house.gov/

I think he's a Dem. Finally after years of voting got rid of the one who was GOP who mailed at GOP issue type checklists.

[Opti]

Jun 11, 2021 15:49:20 GMT -5 happyhoix said:

My congressperson from hell, Marge Taylor Greene, sent out a mass mailing asking me if I would send her a pretty photo taken someplace in my county so she could pick all the prettiest and hang them on her wall in Congress.

The most polite thing I could think to say was to congratulate her on finding something positive to fill her time, since she got kicked out of all the committees. Everything else I wanted to send were some variety of lewd/offensive photo for her to put on her wall.

Figured I’d get in trouble with the feds, so I didn’t actually do anything. Sigh.

I would send her two. One that is pretty, and one that either highlights liberal causes or shows a crappy area of her district. But I have a goal of being politically active and making the world a better place.

ETA - And some days, if I can't accomplish good or need to blow off steam, I like being a PITA for good. Or annoying. It depends.

[Opti]

Just as OT background, one of my co-workers has lived locally in NJ for her entire life. She finds it a major hoot and weird that I and a tall big black male CNA get along well and talk at lunch. She doesn't get us at all. She has a personality similar to Trump although not as mean nor self-centered. Me and D are practical folk with varied experiences. He's told me some great experiences, and personality-wise we are far more alike than my coworker who physically looks more like me.

I want the world to change for the better. I've spent far more than a decade living on the margins IMO and learning about lives while under-funded. I plan to use that knowledge to advocate for some changes.

[Opti]

I think I have a shot, I found this-


Tomasz P. Malinowski is an American politician and diplomat who is the U.S. representative for New Jersey's 7th congressional district. A Democrat, he served as Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor in the Obama administration.

I am super jealous now though. He lives in Princeton and went to both Oxford and Berkley.