Wield Your Political Power

Voting: More than a Right

The right to a voice in deciding who will govern you and what laws you will live by is one of the most sublime characteristics of life in a free county.  Those who have the right to vote yet choose not to exercise it contribute to social apathy and the decay of society.  If  you are able to vote it is your duty to do so as your participation in this process ensures the survival of your ethics and beliefs.  Even if your candidates usually loose, your vote is not wasted at is a show of support for alternate viewpoints.  A large number of votes behind a loosing candidate may influence the victors to consider your opinion in order to gain more political support in the future.

Worse than those who don't vote are those who vote blindly and choose dogma and rhetoric over facts and logic.  Take the time to read up on the issues, delve into the candidates' backgrounds and evaluate how they will affect you and the people around you.  Never forget that campaign ads and propaganda are designed to get your vote and are not necessarily designed to give you the truth.

Never forget that people have the power.  We, the people of CA, fired our lousy governor, and most people never thought that was possible:

 

Life in a Two Party System

In the United States, the Republicans and Democrats for the most part control our government.  In major elections, the only contest is which of these two parties will successfully place their candidate in a position of power.  In my opinion this is a bad thing and one that should be fought against.  Your choices should not be limited to the guy in favor of taxation, sticking it to the rich, abortion and  gun control  and  his opponent who is in favor of arming the populace, killing criminals, kowtowing to corporations and banning abortion.  Half of the stuff politicians talk about and polarize on are issues that they realistically have little power to alter and even less right to try to do so.

The only way to break this two party stranglehold on our government it to intelligently support and aid other parties.  This is not to say throw your vote away on people aspiring to get 1% of the vote as you do have to be realistic in your support.  I myself have done my part by registering with the libertarian party.  I strongly believe in personal freedom, abhor a government that wants to protect me from myself, and would like to throw out half of our taxes and laws prohibiting people to do or own things that that might harm themselves.  Thus, I registered with a small, struggling third party that mostly embodies these same beliefs.  By doing so I add to the clout and power of this party and help ensure that this party is given a space on the election ballots and a voice in our government.

Don't Throw Away your Vote

Do I always vote libertarian, even knowing that my party will lose?  Of Course not.  It is as critical to ensure the defeat of the candidate that you most dislike as it is to get your favorite person into office.  I look at the candidates I think have a reasonable chance of winning and I vote for the one out of that group that is closest to my ideal.  In my case, I often end up voting for Republicans because they have the funding to win, are supposedly  in favor of private gun ownership, smaller government and reduced taxes.  The reality is usually a choice between the two parties and since I want my vote to have maximum impact I choose an ally who can win rather than a soul mate who is destined to fail. If the libertarian candidate has a chance of winning, obviously I will vote for him/her.  If the only serious contenders are equally abhorrent to me, I vote libertarian and thus show my support for the party. If it looks like a land slide victory for one candidate, regardless of my vote, I also vote libertarian to support my party.

My point in bringing this up is that everyone should do what they can to encourage the underdog parties in this country.  Over time, if enough people register with a single third party, a three party system could be formed which will force the parties to differentiate themselves a little more.  If enough people register and support multiple third parties rather than a single third party, this still diminishes the power of the Republicans and Democrats as they must actively woo third party voters in order to gain power. 

Which Third Party is Right for You?

I strongly encourage you to sample the various parties out there and register with and support any that seem like a good fit.  If you like personal freedom above all, examine the Libertarians.  If you are an aggressive environmentalist, look at the Green party.  If you are an all around moderate often torn between supporting Republican and Democrat candidates, examine the Reform party.  If you hate freedom and want to see the rich knocked into the dirt right along beside you, check out the Communist party.  If none of the various third parties suit you, register as independent and thumb your nose at all of them rather than support a group that doesn't really represent you.  The percentages of people registered in each party help determine which parties are included on the ballot, invited to debates and given a voice.  Registering with a third party or as an independent doesn't mean you will throw your vote away or become irrelevant.  By registering third party, you increase your chances that the front runner candidates will address your issues, regardless of party affiliations.

This very short short Quiz could help you find the right party for you in under a minute

 

 

Supervise, praise and reprimand your employees.

The people in public office are your effectively your employees.  They are your staff, your minions and your henchmen.  Even if you didn't vote for them, if you live in their jurisdiction they are your public servants.  It is your tax dollars that pays for their salary, their office space, their letterhead and often their cars.  Politicians exist to serve the people but if they don't hear from you they are likely to serve themselves. 

It is truly amazing what a stack of faxes, a pile of letters or a flood of phone calls can do.  In many ways, your direct communication with elected officials is more powerful than the actual votes you cast as elected officials have to listen to you even if you didn't vote for them.  City councilmen, mayors, county sheriffs, district attorneys, state assemblymen, county supervisors, congressmen, senators and presidents are your servants so manage them accordingly.

If one person out of every hundred in a given district calls a politician's office, they will overload the phone lines instantaneously.  If letters to a congressman arrive by the truckload, he rapidly gets the idea that he is being watched.  How many people will vote for a bad law after getting hundreds of letters, thousands of faxes and tens of thousands of email messages all saying that they better not do it or they will not be reelected?

Think of scenario in which a city council in a city of 100,000 people is about to vote on a bill.  33% of the residents want the bill to pass, 33% hate the bill and the remainder either doesn't know or doesn't care about it.  Any one of these groups consists of about 33,333 people.  If one in ten people in one of these groups sends a letter, fax or email to the city council stating their viewpoint, 3,333 messages will arrive and have to be dealt with.  Imagine the impact that will have!  Think of how much time it will take simply to sort through and read all of those messages.  Imagine the amount of space 3,000+ letters will take up on someone's desk.  What if most of those messages say, "Don't vote for that bill if you want my future support!"?  In this country the squeaky wheel gets the grease.  If we apply these same numbers to a large city, a congressional district, a state population or the federal government, we are talking about the transmission of tens or even hundreds of thousands of messages, and that is if only a small percentage of the people bothers to speak out.

Tips on Contacting your Politician

Don't sound crazy or threatening. 
Kooks get ignored and threats are punished with jail time.

Be brief and to the point: 
If you need more than a paragraph or two to express yourself, you will loose your impact somewhere in the body of your manifesto.

Be very clear and specific:
Urge them to take a specific action, such as "Vote Yes on Proposition 187" or "I am outraged that you voted against Proposition 59 and will vote against you in the next election".

Fully Identify Yourself
Tell them your full name and address.  This is important!  Anonymous letters are more or less ignored.  Your name and address proves you are a real person living in their jurisdiction with the power to vote for or against them in the next election.

Avoid Form Letters from Organizations
Your letter will have much more weight if it is not cosmetically identical to hundreds of other letters coming in.  Activist groups such as the NRA, often send letters and emails and ask you to add your name and forward it to a politician.  While this is better than nothing, it carries far less weight than if you did it in your own way.  Such mass mailings of identical forms literally receive a much lower importance rating than an equal number of seemingly original letters.

Letters, Faxes, Phone Calls and Email
is the order of importance assigned to messages received by politicians.  If a person takes the time to write a letter, stick a stamp on it and mail it, they are obviously pretty interested in the issue.  If they merely pick up the phone and howl or send a quick email, they are still clearly interested, but went to less effort to get the message across.

Know your Friends and Foes
Don't get mixed up and yell at the pro-gun conservative and who is fending off the gun control bill you want stopped. Likewise, don't accidentally praise the congresswoman who is pushing a tax bill when you want the bill stopped.  Take the time to find out who the big players are and where they stand on a given issue.  Tailor your argument to your audience.  A decision making committee can often be addressed as a whole, but it is even more effective to write each of the members of that committee individually and support or argue against their specific stance.

Other Venues for Your Thoughts

Use the Printed and Electronic Media
In addition to contacting politicians directly, consider using the might of the media to spread your beliefs.  Letters to the Editor often get published and read by thousands of people.  Low volume websites easily attract hundreds or thousands of people each month.  Trust me, I run several.

Don't be a Wimp!
Just because someone disagrees with you doesn't mean you have to keep silent.  There are many social settings, such as the workplace, were starting up heated political discussions in boorish and inappropriate. Nevertheless, if someone brings the fight to you, don't be a door mat.  Briefly and politely tell them you disagree, and if the setting permits, tell them why.  If you are silent when challenged, you reinforce opposing beliefs and give the impression you agree with your opponent.  Don't go around with a grudge on your shoulder trying to convert the opposition at inappropriate settings but likewise don't be a coward and treat your heartfelt beliefs like dirty secrets.  Politics used to be considered polite conversation and it's about time this becomes accepted again.  To hell with political correctness; your ideas are worth promoting.