From Slashdot: "I'm going to take a stab at empowering you"

Slashdot ^ | 09/07/13 | Artifakt

[plsjr]

I'm going to take a stab at empowering you.

§  We're in a long term fight for human freedom. Long term means you may have to influence people now who can just possibly help us, or at least you, ten or twenty years down the road. Pick people who are running for minor or local offices, and need a little help, whether it's contributions or getting out the vote or going door to door. You don't have to spend a fortune or put in fifty hours a week on top of your day job to be remembered as one of those people who helped congressman X get his start in politics.

§  Write letters - you’d be surprised how many seemingly major pieces of legislation draw two or three letters as they are up for debate, and how getting letters from as few as 10 or 20 people may make a congressman suddenly vote the way he now thinks the vast majority of his constituents want him to vote. Senators and Representatives may see 10,000 e-signatures on a stock electronic petition, but don't usually see even 10 actual letters. A letter thanking them for having done the right thing after it's over is even rarer.

§  Focus on the persons who seem like they have a good chance of making it to higher office eventually. Find out what a Farley file is, and make sure you end up in a few, in a positive way. Work on your spelling and grammar - An eloquent nutcase may be able to pass as a mainstream voter, but a mainstream voter who writes in all caps and spews sentence fragments, can definitely say something eminently sensible and still be labeled a nutcase.

Here's a link for Farley Files. Politicians who make it to high office just about invariably use these, so it's always helpful to know about them. Learning to watch for signs a candidate uses the system is a way of spotting the ones who will go high enough they may someday be able to address issues like the NSA programs. It's also useful to consider in judging what a politician truly considers important rather than what he says in prepared speeches - that is, if he or she is using a file, what do they focus on.

[plsjr]

Slashdot is a decent source of information, though certainly not a bastion of conservatism.

I found this nugget and thought I would save it to remind myself and maybe others that there are steps we can take to influence those who might be "representing" us in the future.

Please add your thoughts about this and other things we might do to become engaged and accomplish the sea-change needed.