The Power Of The Internet
06/28/2007
A+
|
a-
Print Friendly and PDF
The power of the internet: Talk radio knows the bill better than the Senators do, says Jeff Sessions.

I'd think that bloggers know it better as well. For one thing, I suspect that if the Senators have copies of it, they have paper copies, printed out at Federal expense. We have the annotated web version, and 300 pages of amendments.

Also, the internet has a way of linking activists that wasn't possible before it existed. See, for example, this email from Roy Beck, asking everyone on his mailing list who might know a Senator personally to contact them:

AN APPEAL TO THOSE OF YOU WITH SPECIAL TIES TO A SENATOR

1. Are you part of the elites or establishment in your community?

2. Have you given any donations to either of your Senators' campaigns in the past?

3. Do you have any kind of relationship with the Senators, members of theirstaff, local leaders of his/her political party, or somebody who does?

Although most of us are part of the broad public (that tends to be overlooked by Senators), I know that out of 437,000 activist NumbersUSA members, some of you in every state have some special connections.

For those of you who do, I appeal with greatest urgency for you to use every means at your disposal to call your Senator or staff person or political party leader — this afternoon, tonight, tomorrow morning.

We are already hearing from a number of you with these kinds of connections who are making contact. And the effect is powerful.

You cannot overestimate the power of your calling and saying, "I've been a friend for years .... " or "I'm a financial supporter" or something of that kind and then talk about your great concern for the political future of this Senator, as well as for your state, if S. 1639 goes through.

The late Robert A. Heinlein talked about the importance of that kind of contact in his non-fiction book Take Back Your Government , written in 1947, but he was talking about 3 by 5 index cards, 2 cent postcards, and 5 cent telephone calls.

William Gheen of ALIPAC has a different plan:

Please make arrangements to be at the closest "Main State Office" of each Senator that voted YES on CLOTURE.

Tell the office staff "I am a taxpayer and a constituent. I am opposed to this Amnesty bill and want Senator _____ to VOTE NO ON CLOTURE today! I am here to await the results of his/her vote and get that information when it comes in."

Do not take signs, stickers, or any items. You are merely a voter and a taxpayer, in a taxpayer supported office, seeking information about the Cloture vote. You can continue your calls to DC on your cell phone. Call all local media if you can, tell them who you are, where you are and what you are doing.

OUR GOAL: Word must reach the Senator's ear, before they vote on Cloture, that there is a group of anti-amnesty concerned constituents talking to press and awaiting their vote on cloture at their main state offices.

Again, that's the kind of thing that couldn't be organized on a national basis in the 1940's, when Heinlein was writing. It's another example of what can be done by ordinary citizens, with ordinary computers, and one ordinary vote each.

Print Friendly and PDF