Do the Democrats have a problem with their base?

[KRonn]

I'm in Massachusetts. I have one flavor of politician, hard left wing. So as a centrist/Independent voter I basically have no representation. The closest I have is Rep Steve Lynch who is more of a centrist Democrat, at least sometimes. I actually like him as a rep, to a point anyway. Otherwise I have an assortment of big govt types, socialists, communists, gypsies, tramps and thieves who represent the state.  Barney Frank, Ed Markey, Jim McGovern. Others, and reps who visit Castro and Chavez and have wonderful things to say about them. 

Currently going through the process of electing a Senator to replace Ted Kennedy. The Dems are a fun assortment - most of them fighting with each other to see who can get to the political left of the other.   

[derspiess]

I'm in Massachusetts. I have one flavor of politician, hard left wing. So as a centrist/Independent voter I basically have no representation. The closest I have is Rep Steve Lynch who is more of a centrist Democrat, at least sometimes. I actually like him as a rep, to a point anyway. Otherwise I have an assortment of big govt types, socialists, communists, gypsies, tramps and thieves who represent the state.  Barney Frank, Ed Markey, Jim McGovern. Others, and reps who visit Castro and Chavez and have wonderful things to say about them. 

Currently going through the process of electing a Senator to replace Ted Kennedy. The Dems are a fun assortment - most of them fighting with each other to see who can get to the political left of the other.   

West Virginia was almost as bad when I lived there.  At least now they have a centrist (if not slightly conservative) Dem as governor, and one GOP congresswoman.  But there's still Byrd

Delaware was interestingly split more or less evenly (with a slight GOP advantage) when I moved there, but by the time I left the Dems had taken over everything but the one House seat.

My part of Ohio is a conservative bastion & looks to remain that way

[Fate]

Until they lose jobs, then they're all for the government tit. 

[Eddie Teach]

i've been interning for a few months now in d.c. with mccain. i'm not exactly new,

You know what would be hilarious? If Lacroix is Count.

[LaCroix]

Or the signal to noise ratio is so low that you're worse off from listening to constituent mail. You can't really expect an honest politician to legislate based on the whim of Beckers and Truthers, can you?

most of that garbage never makes it into the hands of anyone with even a semblance of importance. at least with this office, interns handle most everything that deals with the constituents--to some degree. we open the mail when it comes in, we listen to voice mail, and etc. the first day of my internship, we had to go through two huge boxes full of mail because there had been a month's lapse where there were no interns in the office; the staff just let it pile up. there are exceptions: staff assistants (lowest rung on the totem pole, but higher than interns because they are permanent staffers), who sit in the front and greet people who come in and answer direct calls. even when people call in to speak with someone in the office about an issue, generally it's just used to let people vent. if it's just a constituent calling in, then at the end of the call the staffer will say something like, "thank you, sir/ma'am, i have written down your comments and will certainly pass them along to the senator. you have a great day," then hangs up without marking anything down. only when it is someone important do they make note of it

My state representative responds pretty well. He will sometimes send out an email response outlining his ideas, why he feels that way, and such. I realize it's a form letter but he or his staff do seem to take the time to put together a well versed letter on a political position and explain it.

though obviously i do not know the inner-workings of your state representative office, i would think it was likely the staffer in charge of whatever subject you made an inquiry of. about a month ago i was given, by the health legislative staffer, a stack of letters and a code--HEGE3002. it became my job to enter the person and their address into capcorr (a program which has a database of everyone who writes in and that notes everything that is sent out), type in the code and print out the response, and then send it out. every letter was the same, and each had the senator's signature thanks to the auto-pen.

Johnny H.'s seat is ultra safe.  He's going to pay less attention to mail and calls than most elected officials.

i've thought about that, but i don't know. every day we receive at least 50+ letters, over 300 voice messages, and around 800 faxes (though 80% of those are always form letters which are deleted). few politicians are going to spend the time specifically answering each letter, or even a few, especially given the amount that arrives every. single. day. i would think that the temptation to just dump it on the staff would be fairly high.

And then once when I was having problems getting the INS to keep moving forward on my wife's green card.   One of his staffers responded & offered to help in any way they could, but shortly thereafter we got things moving again.

that's one area our office does a pretty good job with. i think. when it is an arizona constituent with a personal problem that they are requesting help with, the letters are kept and passed along either to the office general counsel (if it's case work) or to the phoenix/tempe offices to get the issue dealt with.

[Admiral Yi]

i've thought about that, but i don't know. every day we receive at least 50+ letters, over 300 voice messages, and around 800 faxes (though 80% of those are always form letters which are deleted). few politicians are going to spend the time specifically answering each letter, or even a few, especially given the amount that arrives every. single. day. i would think that the temptation to just dump it on the staff would be fairly high.

I meant pay attention as in use it to track constituent sentiment, not as in handcraft a personal response to each one.

[Barrister]

From my political experience, "writing/calling your MP" is tremendously effective.  People who are motivated enough to call are motivated enough to tell all their friends, to donate, and to volunteer.

Now certainly while getting a whole series of identical pre-printed letters doesn't do much, but 100 heartfelt letters from constituents is just about the most powerful message you can send a politician.

i'm not sure how it works in canada, or with the more local political bodies in the united states, or even with other senate offices (though i would imagine that they are not too radically different).. but in the office i work in, the constituent has very little influence. naturally, form letters, petitions, and just plain crazy letters (keywords for craziness = czar, communist/socialist, ranting, calling people idiots or worse, etc) are just thrown out before they reach anyone important. well thought out/informed letters are kept, placed in a pile, given a code (health care: HEGE, for example), and then scanned and distributed among the legislative assistants based on the code. those assistants then respond to the letter by sending out a letter template they have already constructed. with voice mail, there is a tally sheet to mark down people's views on issues, but nobody really pays much attention to it. the impression i have is that letters are only given a response so that they don't get angry that their senator is not paying attention to their demands. even then, the senator never directly hears from the constituents. whether a staff member ever tells the senator something along the lines of, "okay, sounds like people want YES on hr.4821," i don't know

Well I never meant to imply that the politician would personally read and respond to every piece of correspondence.  But if you're an individual and want to get your message through to your politician, a letter is the most effective way to do it - and I think you've demonstrated how that is.

And don't tell me that if there is a large number of letters on a topic, all or mostly all on one side, that a politician doesn't take very strong note of that. 

It is probably a bit different up here in Canada as MPs cover far fewer constituents.  We have 301 MPs for a population of 30 million, so very roughly 100,000 per MP.  And in the north it's even smaller - the local Liberal MP was 30,000 constituents, and works damn hard to attend every damn dog and pony show going.  That's why he constinues to be re-elected with decent margins, when the Liberals are largely disappearing from both the west and the north.

[MadImmortalMan]

We really are going to take over the world, you know. A couple centuries from now the word 'languish" will be conjured up in context with the other greats like Opus Dei and Skull and Bones.

[Capetan Mihali]

I called my representatives on the issues of funding for public transit (support), a statewide indoor smoking ban (oppose), a gay rights measure (support), maybe a couple other things?  I got a nice embossed letter back recently just for having a signed a petition to keep the city libraries open.   

[Barrister]

We really are going to take over the world, you know. A couple centuries from now the word 'languish" will be conjured up in context with the other greats like Opus Dei and Skull and Bones.

We can't even manage to run a small WoW guild, never mind taking over the world.

[Eddie Teach]

 

He didn't say it would be you and Jaron doing it.

[Neil]

Ah, ain't it cute how the MoveOn types think that they're the Democratic base?

The Republicans would love to convince the Democratic rank-and-file that MoveOn and the like really are the Democratic base.

Republicans also seem to think that MoveOn.org is the base.  Or the leadership.  Or something.  Cause you hear them bitching about them on a regular basis.

Of course they bitch about it.  What part of, "The Republicans would love to convince the Democratic rank-and-file that MoveOn and the like really are the Democratic base" did you not understand?

My guess is:  Love.  He is empty and sad, because there is no love in him.

I thought that your point was excellent.  The Republicans attack MoveOn in order to increase the publicity around them, which then causes Democratic moderates to recoil in revulsion and vote Republican.   This is known as the Nixon Maneuver.

[Jaron]

Oh, another Republican failure.

[LaCroix]

I meant pay attention as in use it to track constituent sentiment, not as in handcraft a personal response to each one.

Well I never meant to imply that the politician would personally read and respond to every piece of correspondence.  But if you're an individual and want to get your message through to your politician, a letter is the most effective way to do it - and I think you've demonstrated how that is.

And don't tell me that if there is a large number of letters on a topic, all or mostly all on one side, that a politician doesn't take very strong note of that. 

It is probably a bit different up here in Canada as MPs cover far fewer constituents.  We have 301 MPs for a population of 30 million, so very roughly 100,000 per MP.  And in the north it's even smaller - the local Liberal MP was 30,000 constituents, and works damn hard to attend every damn dog and pony show going.  That's why he constinues to be re-elected with decent margins, when the Liberals are largely disappearing from both the west and the north.

apologies for mistaking your points

i wasn't entirely sure how to answer you, so i brought it up with a legislative assistant. to answer your question, yi, at least with the mccain office, there is no tracker. a letter is received and a reply is sent off, and that's where the buck stops. barrister, on larger issues, where there are people writing in every day in bulk about, let's say health care reform, there's little influence in how the senator acts. mccain gathers his information about what the constituents want from townhalls, so mail is not placed as a high priority in his office. however, on minor, or less widely known issues, there might be more of an impact. let's say a nomination for a judge, if there are a lot of people writing in favor of it, then a staff member might just think, "well, let's look into this," and then they could inform the legislative director who relays the information to the senator. the senator may then decide to run with it, or they could ignore it.

it all depends on the person, and the senate offices vary. senator kyl apparently reads every single form letter that his staff creates and sends out, and senator brown occasionally reads constituent letters on the floor--provided by his staff, i'm sure. i asked the staffer if he thought other offices held mail in a higher regard, and though he said he didn't know for sure, he mentioned it was likely that they don't.

[Razgovory]

Ah, ain't it cute how the MoveOn types think that they're the Democratic base?

The Republicans would love to convince the Democratic rank-and-file that MoveOn and the like really are the Democratic base.

Republicans also seem to think that MoveOn.org is the base.  Or the leadership.  Or something.  Cause you hear them bitching about them on a regular basis.

Of course they bitch about it.  What part of, "The Republicans would love to convince the Democratic rank-and-file that MoveOn and the like really are the Democratic base" did you not understand?

My guess is:  Love.  He is empty and sad, because there is no love in him.

I thought that your point was excellent.  The Republicans attack MoveOn in order to increase the publicity around them, which then causes Democratic moderates to recoil in revulsion and vote Republican.   This is known as the Nixon Maneuver.

It's true.  I'm incapable of love.