It’s important to take action even if your representative doesn’t listen this time. Or next time. It takes time to change minds.
Taking action has other benefits, too. ...
Taking action has other benefits, too. ...
https://twitter.com/going_upstream/status/1362459735337934852
For each of us, civic participation is a habit that it takes time to build.
This is why voting participation is usually lower when people are younger, but tends to become more reliable with age. It’s not the age, per se, but that older people have made voting a habit.
This is why voting participation is usually lower when people are younger, but tends to become more reliable with age. It’s not the age, per se, but that older people have made voting a habit.
Contacting your legislators is another habit it takes time to build.
At first, you may be a little nervous. After you’ve done it a few times, it seems normal. After you’ve written them a few emails, making a call doesn’t sound too hard.
At first, you may be a little nervous. After you’ve done it a few times, it seems normal. After you’ve written them a few emails, making a call doesn’t sound too hard.
After you’ve made a call, or a few, to your legislators’ offices, you know their staff are just regular people.
Maybe an office visit doesn’t sound so hard now? It’s only going to meet one of the nice people who wrote down your opinion when you called the last time.
Maybe an office visit doesn’t sound so hard now? It’s only going to meet one of the nice people who wrote down your opinion when you called the last time.
Maybe your legislator is having a town hall—not now, but they’ll start up again eventually—and now it doesn’t seem scary at all to just ask a question, since you’ve been in touch with their office a few times.
After all of that, you probably have a fluent understanding of how to talk about your issue(s), and how to get your point across clearly.
Now you’re confident enough in your grasp of the facts that you might think about speaking up at a legislative hearing.
Now you’re confident enough in your grasp of the facts that you might think about speaking up at a legislative hearing.
If you’ve been working with an organization or group of activists through some of this process, you’ll more likely hear about topics you may want to take action on, and that network will be more effective because they’ve already got contact information for engage people like you.
When a major policy change is underway, the most effective advocacy is generally done by people, networks, and organizations, that have been working on an issue maybe for years.
Then all of that preparation and habit-building comes together for maximum impact.
Then all of that preparation and habit-building comes together for maximum impact.
Which is a long way of saying that being able to take effective political action requires a lot of preparation and groundwork, which may not yield immediate results.
But you can’t skip that part, then hope it all comes together in a crisis. You need to put in the work first.
But you can’t skip that part, then hope it all comes together in a crisis. You need to put in the work first.
• • •
Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to
force a refresh
