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> I ended up contacting all of the senators on the finance committee... "we don't give responses to non-constituents" That's a bit disturbing. Senators' work o

> I ended up contacting all of the senators on the finance committee... "we don't give responses to non-constituents" That's a bit disturbing. Senators' work on committees affects everyone in the country, not just residents of the senator's home state, and one's own senators may not have a seat on that committee.

monksy 5y ago
Senator Cantwell (Was), Tim Scott (SC) were the ones that responded back with: Thank you for sharing your thoughts with me. As a matter of professional courtesy to my U.S. Senate colleagues, I defer to them and encourage you to contact your U.S. Senator with this issue. In addition, I deeply value my correspondence with South Carolinians; because of the high volume of mail I receive on a daily basis, I will give preference to responding to my constituents. Contact information for your U.S. Senator can be found at www.senate.gov. Thank you for your time and have a great day.
diebeforei485 5y ago
You can contact the committee directly, by phone or fax. Numbers are on this page[1]. You can usually leave a voicemail if nobody picks up. For written communication, yeah most of us don't have a fax machine, but there are services online that let you upload a PDF to be faxed. They also accept snail mail, but it is very slow. 1. https://www.finance.senate.gov/about/faq https://www.finance.senate.gov/about/faq
- wolfgang42 5y ago
  > They also accept snail mail, but it is very slow. For context, this isn’t just “it takes a couple of days for a letter to cross the country.” Here’s the note from my local congressperson’s contact page, for example: > All postal mail sent to my offices must be scanned for security purposes, which means it will take an additional two weeks for me to receive it. Regarding faxes, it’s also worth checking with your local library—mine offers scan-to-email and faxing as a free service.
pirate787 5y ago
On the contrary, it is traditionally considered inappropriate to contact Senators who do not represent you and it is unethical for them to respond in substance (in the House it is explicitly against House rules). We live in a representative democracy and power is distributed geographically through elected representatives. When you contact someone who does not represent you, you're sort of stepping outside the bounds of the democratic structure. You're also consuming resources that are apportioned to a legislative district that's not your legislative district.
- genewitch 5y ago
  Do my tax dollars go to every senator on the committee?
  - pirate787 5y ago
    The point is that your scope as a constituent is traditionally limited to your voting jurisdiction.
    - pseudalopex 5y ago
      The point is senators' scope as committee members isn't limited to their voting jurisdiction.
- monksy 5y ago
  > When you contact someone who does not represent you, you're sort of stepping outside the bounds of the democratic structure. You're also consuming resources that are apportioned to a legislative district that's not your legislative district. That is no longer relevant when they step out of the bounds of representative politics and form special social groups that dictate the laws and behavior of offices that we have to deal with. You can't just have your cake and eat it too.
- jimkleiber 5y ago
  I appreciate you pointing this out and wish I heard it more. I hear so much talk of "democracy" but not many people talking of "representative democracy," which is how the US government is mostly structured (the occasional ballot issue). I wonder if the internet and other tools that have reduced the costs of communication have been nudging many of us more towards wanting direct democracy, not representative democracy, without even realizing the shift or how it conflicts with the underlying structure of our government. I'm curious, what are your thoughts related to how people see the government in terms of representative vs direct (or other forms of) democracy?

monksy 5y ago

Senator Cantwell (Was), Tim Scott (SC) were the ones that responded back with: Thank you for sharing your thoughts with me. As a matter of professional courtesy to my U.S. Senate colleagues, I defer to them and encourage you to contact your U.S. Senator with this issue. In addition, I deeply value my correspondence with South Carolinians; because of the high volume of mail I receive on a daily basis, I will give preference to responding to my constituents. Contact information for your U.S. Senator can be found at www.senate.gov. Thank you for your time and have a great day.

diebeforei485 5y ago

You can contact the committee directly, by phone or fax. Numbers are on this page[1]. You can usually leave a voicemail if nobody picks up. For written communication, yeah most of us don't have a fax machine, but there are services online that let you upload a PDF to be faxed. They also accept snail mail, but it is very slow. 1. https://www.finance.senate.gov/about/faq https://www.finance.senate.gov/about/faq

wolfgang42 5y ago
> They also accept snail mail, but it is very slow. For context, this isn’t just “it takes a couple of days for a letter to cross the country.” Here’s the note from my local congressperson’s contact page, for example: > All postal mail sent to my offices must be scanned for security purposes, which means it will take an additional two weeks for me to receive it. Regarding faxes, it’s also worth checking with your local library—mine offers scan-to-email and faxing as a free service.

pirate787 5y ago

On the contrary, it is traditionally considered inappropriate to contact Senators who do not represent you and it is unethical for them to respond in substance (in the House it is explicitly against House rules). We live in a representative democracy and power is distributed geographically through elected representatives. When you contact someone who does not represent you, you're sort of stepping outside the bounds of the democratic structure. You're also consuming resources that are apportioned to a legislative district that's not your legislative district.

genewitch 5y ago
Do my tax dollars go to every senator on the committee?
- pirate787 5y ago
  The point is that your scope as a constituent is traditionally limited to your voting jurisdiction.
  - pseudalopex 5y ago
    The point is senators' scope as committee members isn't limited to their voting jurisdiction.
monksy 5y ago
> When you contact someone who does not represent you, you're sort of stepping outside the bounds of the democratic structure. You're also consuming resources that are apportioned to a legislative district that's not your legislative district. That is no longer relevant when they step out of the bounds of representative politics and form special social groups that dictate the laws and behavior of offices that we have to deal with. You can't just have your cake and eat it too.
jimkleiber 5y ago
I appreciate you pointing this out and wish I heard it more. I hear so much talk of "democracy" but not many people talking of "representative democracy," which is how the US government is mostly structured (the occasional ballot issue). I wonder if the internet and other tools that have reduced the costs of communication have been nudging many of us more towards wanting direct democracy, not representative democracy, without even realizing the shift or how it conflicts with the underlying structure of our government. I'm curious, what are your thoughts related to how people see the government in terms of representative vs direct (or other forms of) democracy?