{"id":1152,"date":"2017-01-27T10:08:35","date_gmt":"2017-01-27T15:08:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.davideriknelson.com\/sbsb\/?p=1152"},"modified":"2017-01-27T10:08:35","modified_gmt":"2017-01-27T15:08:35","slug":"clarification-on-calling-your-reps-and-props-to-senator-stabenow","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.davideriknelson.com\/sbsb\/index.php\/2017\/01\/clarification-on-calling-your-reps-and-props-to-senator-stabenow\/","title":{"rendered":"Clarification on Calling Your Reps, and Props to Senator Stabenow"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"
Props to Senator Debbie Stabenow for Playing it Legit<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

First things first, I want to applaud my senator, Debbie Stabenow, for being hella legit. I just called her office\u00a0for my daily check-in<\/a>, and got a little insight on her process when it comes to the Second-Place President’s cabinet nominations: \u00a0Sen. Stabenow has been meeting with each nominee one-on-one, preferably face-to-face, to feel them out and attempt to get answers to the specific concerns being raised by her constituents. \u00a0None of the grand-standing or histrionics congressfolk are notorious for<\/a>, just a straight-up, respectful Q&A. \u00a0This also means that when Stabenow announced that she would not support Jeff Sessions<\/a> or Betsy DeVos, she had already told them this to their faces. \u00a0I respect the hell out of that, and knowing this bit about her process helps me feel less terrible. \u00a0Thank you, Sen. Stabenow!\"usa-american-flag-waving-animated-gif-26\"<\/p>\n

Second, I want to clarify two things about calling your reps<\/a> (which you should be doing daily. \u00a0Please!):<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Call your reps even if you know they already agree with you<\/em> and are doing what you want done!<\/strong>\u00a0Tell them “thank you!”\u00a0If you feel even an iota safer knowing that they are going to bat for you, then say so. \u00a0This serves two purposes:\n
      \n
    1. It’s a numbers game<\/strong>. \u00a0They count calls, and those numbers mean something, not just in their office, but on the floor of the House and Senate. The Honorable Gentleman from BFE cares a helluva lot about 100 calls from folks in his district\u2014at the very least, those people can fire him in a couple short years!\u2014but he sure as hell doesn’t just ignore 10,000 calls in The Honorable Lady’s district over in Big City Metro Area, because he sure as hell doesn’t plan on representing BFE his whole damn life. \u00a0He wants to go places. \u00a0(This isn’t just my opinion; this is\u00a0what Rep. Dingell’s office told me this morning: \u00a0The number one thing you can do as an individual citizen is keep calling.)<\/li>\n
    2. Your reps have the worst job, and they need moral support<\/strong>. \u00a0They are going to get screamed at and threatened for sticking up for the things we want\u2014that’s ludicrous, because you’d think all Americans should want well-funded schools, neighbors from all over the world, and safe drinking water, but here we are. Your reps have to get up every morning, put on\u00a0uncomfortable shoes, and go get screamed at by weirdos. \u00a0It is a lot<\/em> easier for them to hang tough if they can keep in mind how many hundreds of folks back home have their back.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/li>\n
    3. Making these calls is as much about your mental health as our nation’s stability.<\/strong>\u00a0 Even when you’re on the losing end of an issue\u2014and you will be, often\u2014you are going to start feeling better if you take 10 minutes each day to talk to these staffers, to hear their confidence and enthusiasm and bravery and support of you, as a citizen and a fellow human.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

      So, go! Get out there! \u00a0Make your calls<\/a> and then get on with your day!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

      First things first, I want to applaud my senator, Debbie Stabenow, for being hella legit. I just called her office\u00a0for my daily check-in, and got a little insight on her process when it comes to the Second-Place President’s cabinet nominations: \u00a0Sen. Stabenow has been meeting with each nominee one-on-one, preferably face-to-face, to feel them out … Continue reading “Clarification on Calling Your Reps, and Props to Senator Stabenow”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_share_on_mastodon":"1"},"categories":[11,75],"tags":[21,53],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.davideriknelson.com\/sbsb\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1152"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.davideriknelson.com\/sbsb\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.davideriknelson.com\/sbsb\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.davideriknelson.com\/sbsb\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.davideriknelson.com\/sbsb\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1152"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.davideriknelson.com\/sbsb\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1152\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1156,"href":"https:\/\/www.davideriknelson.com\/sbsb\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1152\/revisions\/1156"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.davideriknelson.com\/sbsb\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1152"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.davideriknelson.com\/sbsb\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1152"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.davideriknelson.com\/sbsb\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1152"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}