You Can't Sit This One Out
No more excuses, people.
No more "They're Republicans, my call won't matter." Or "They're Democrats, I don't have to call." Yes, you do.
Since this session of Congress started, I have made at least two calls a day to my senators and congressman.
I call to complain, I call to urge them on, I call to oppose. I do this because they count those calls, and they report them to their caucus.
I don't just call, I urge my Twitter and Facebook followers to call, too.
Yesterday morning, an activist on an email list was upset because a progressive Democratic senator in a blue state told a colleague he "wasn't sure" he would vote against Betsy DeVos. By the time everyone on that list had called his office, the official statement was "We don't know where that rumor came from, the senator is opposing her nomination."
See how that works?
We call Democrats to let them know someone's watching, to say we oppose the Trump nominees. We call to stiffen their spines, or to say "Good job!" when they stand up to the Republicans. (Like when my Sen. Bob Casey opposed the Bush nominees.)
We call Republicans to oppose their agenda, to remind them they don't have a mandate, to ask why they're not holding town halls on the ACA repeal when they held weeks of public meetings to listen to Tea Party opposition. (As I said to a staffer for Sen. Pat Toomey, the giant turd who's announced he's now going to defund Dodd-Frank -- and Elizabeth Warren's Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.)