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I don't think it's obvious that someone who clicks on a petition either would have otherwise sent a letter to a representative or would be discouraged from doin

I don't think it's obvious that someone who clicks on a petition either would have otherwise sent a letter to a representative or would be discouraged from doing so in the future after the fact. Maybe engaging in small scale participatory democracy actually encourages people to engage in larger scales, for all you know. Frankly, I hear so much of this "oh that'll never do anything and it just makes people disillusioned" nonsense about ALL levels of engagement ("protesters are hurting their own cause!" "it's just a staffer who reads your letter!" "no one cares what you say!") that I'm extremely skeptical of all such claims. Maybe rather than tell people who engage that they're failing it would be more useful to encourage them to succeed more.

joelrunyon 14y ago
> Frankly, I hear so much of this "oh that'll never do anything and it just makes people disillusioned" nonsense about ALL levels of engagement ("protesters are hurting their own cause!" "it's just a staffer who reads your letter!" "no one cares what you say!") that I'm extremely skeptical of all such claims. But there are examples of those types of protests working. Have the petitions ever done anything (other than the death star one which gave the gov't some PR points)? The activism that happened last year with SOPA actually took effort & targeted the people who were able to act on it. Right now, the petition site seems to be handled exclusively by the White House's PR team.