Number of times I have contacted my politician since becoming of voting age: 4
Number of times I felt it did anything: 0
Number of times that I received a response which gave me the impression that at most, i gave them additional marketing information - how many people disagree with what's going on: 4
The last letter I sent, which was about Net Neutrality, went into a lot of detail on how their ideas for how to curb child pornography online would do nothing to actually deter it, how easily it is to get around their idea, how people involved in those markets make it around and aren't averse to using a little more tech, and how their ideas do threaten what does work on the net - it's openness. I made an item by item list of the perceived benefits of their change and why they won't work.
I received a generic response that my representative is working hard to get rid of child pornography on the net, and how this measure will help to do so, listing a number of the reasons that I had argued against while providing nothing more.
Conclusion: writing to politicians is as useful as writing to the mob with policy ideas.
I'd like to recommend that you consider doing something I did last year. I ran for office. Something that I think less than 1 in 1000 Americans do at any time during their entire life.
It was a small office, and at the state level. I collected (all by myself) the signatures needed to get on the ballot. The entire campaign came out of my pocket (I spent less than $200 and took no contributions from anyone).
My campaign slogan turned into no, you can't have a pony because of all the demands that everyone made.
That generic response is because very few politicians have the time to even read the addresses on every letter they get. And the way our country has reponded is (and the response is in my opinion the absolutely wrong one) to create the lobbying industry. By throwing money at the politicians, they're getting the access that you should have gotten as a constituent.
I learned one heck of a lot of stuff. About me. About the press. About politics. About all the ways one can screw stuff up. About how little that the majority of people care about things. It wasn't at all like Mr Smith Goes To Washington.
Number of times I felt it did anything: 0
Number of times that I received a response which gave me the impression that at most, i gave them additional marketing information - how many people disagree with what's going on: 4
The last letter I sent, which was about Net Neutrality, went into a lot of detail on how their ideas for how to curb child pornography online would do nothing to actually deter it, how easily it is to get around their idea, how people involved in those markets make it around and aren't averse to using a little more tech, and how their ideas do threaten what does work on the net - it's openness. I made an item by item list of the perceived benefits of their change and why they won't work.
I received a generic response that my representative is working hard to get rid of child pornography on the net, and how this measure will help to do so, listing a number of the reasons that I had argued against while providing nothing more.
Conclusion: writing to politicians is as useful as writing to the mob with policy ideas.