Adam DeAngeli of Rescue Michigan posted a YouTube video today on how to respond when you’ve received an email or letter back from your politicians that are designed to give your no answers and shut you down, or “shut you up,” as Adam would say.
His advice is pretty simple. He recommends to “double down” and take action by doing the following:
- Follow up with a phone call by saying the following: “I received a very insulting, offensive response from (Politician’s name) in response to a petition regarding (House Bill or Senate Bills). I included my zip code so that you would know I’m a constituent, and I expected a response as indicated in that petition. It doesn’t matter if someone else wrote if for me. That was MY petition, and I want your position on these bills IMMEDIATELY.” Tell them you want a response in writing to your email or home address on the petition you sent to them.
- Send a letter about it to local newspaper in the politician’s district. Write a short letter or email to the editor stating, “I sent a letter to my State legislator about his/her position on these bills, and they are refusing to respond because it’s a form letter. Well it’s a form letter I signed and I am a constituent.” Tell them that you want people to know that your politician is not responding to constituent communications, and urge everyone to contact their office and get his/her position on these bills.
DeAngeli urges constituents to force politicians to do their job, as they work for us the people. As a former legislative staffer, DeAngeli mentioned how little communications their offices actually receive. Part of a staffer’s job is to answer back to constituents. “The more interaction you have with the staff, the more difficulty you make for them with respect to trying to dodge the issue. Remember the goal is to get them on record and if the only response is “I’m not responding” then that’s their on-record response.” Constituents don’t like to hear when a legislator refuses to answer calls and refuse to provide a position. So stay on them!
You can watch Adam’s video here: