Does Calling our Elected Officials Even Work?

I often get comments along the lines of this:

So, does our outreach to our reps really work? Or are we wasting our time?

I suppose it comes down to your outlook. You could call everything you do in life meaningless if you wanted to. But that’s just not the case. Everything we do has an impact. Some might be bigger than others, sure, but none of them have zero impact. Everything we buy, everything we throw away, everything we spend money on- you get the idea. It all does something!

And so does using your voice!

Regardless of the outcome, you deserve to have your voice heard

Our politicians are public servants, and they should hear what we have to say. Regardless of if they listen or not, it is not a waste of time to have your voice heard. Let them know your complaints, praises, gripes, and suggestions. Tell them how you’d like them to vote. Tell them what actions they should be taking.

And remind them that you hold the voting power. You choose whether they get elected or not.

So, remember the power you have. They may be the ones writing laws and voting on them, but you’re the ones they’re working for. You’re the ones who can get them back in office or voted out. So, remind them of that.

Again, you deserve to have your voice heard. Our politicians have gotten a little too comfortable working for themselves, for corporations, and for the billionaire class. But they work for us all. Let your voice be heard!

What happens when you call?

Your full message may not be logged word for word, but a staffer should at least portray your overall message such as approval of climate policy for example. They may even just have a list of pressing issues and put a tally mark next to each call they receive about each issue.

Regardless of how precisely they jot it down or not, your message IS relayed to your elected official (if not, they’re not doing their job and should be held accountable).

While this is never okay, one common theme I found while posting about this topic on other apps is that they’re more likely to ignore you and/or hang up on you if you read from a script using apps like 5 Calls. So, use the scripts, they’re extremely helpful, but just change them up slightly to better match your natural tone. Change a few works, add your genuine thoughts and feelings, etc.

Of course, they should take every single call regardless if it was a script or not, but let’s try to avoid the worst of the worst reps!

Why it works

#1 Re-election

Politicians want to hold power as long as possible. And they won’t do that if they’re unliked. One way to be liked is by working according to our requests.

They need happy constituents whose concerns are being met.

If they’re not meeting your concerns, keep bothering them, and don’t forget to let them know that they work for you. They make the decisions, but they work for the people. Ensure that you remain on your word and do not vote for a politician who is not meeting these needs.

#2 Pressure

I know that my one, singular phone call is not going to save the world, but 100s or 1000s of calls just might. We need to do this small action together to really build the pressure. Get your friends, coworkers, and classmates involved. Pass the word along via flyers at the coffee shop or protests you attend.

And keep calling! Call once, good work. Call every day, amazing! It adds up.

What if they need 50 calls to add it to the top of their agenda, and yours is the call that is the tipping point? This is why every call and letter matters.

#3 Priority

The urgency and number of calls can create new priorities for your politicians. For example, maybe they’re already pro-Ukraine. But maybe it’s not on the top of their to-do list. If we all head to the 5 Calls app and call about Ukraine, it will now be on the top of all of their lists.

So, sure, they may vote how we want them to eventually, but we can speed up the process by putting the pressure on.

Don’t forget that public pressure helps too by talking about these things on social media and among local groups! Some of our reps vote this way. Pressure them and hold them accountable!

#4 Timeliness

Calling works well because of how quickly you can make contact with your reps. Emailing and writing letters are fine; don’t get me wrong, do it if that works best for you. But it can take days or even weeks to get a message across their desk in these slower ways. It’s still effective, so write emails if that is your preferred method to contact your reps (better yet, both call and write), but calling is just simply faster.

As mentioned, the speed and volume in which we can call can amplify these issues are fast as possible, bringing about the most attention and urgency.

I way more often hear about volumes of phone calls that our reps get than volumes of emails. Perhaps it is because they get more phone calls, but it could also be that phone calls make more noise…literally and figuratively!

This won’t save the world

I know phone calls aren’t going to save the world. No single action will. Voting won’t save the world, emailing won’t save the world, and stopping shopping won’t save the world, but they all still matter. We don’t just need one solution to climate change and human justice, we need multiple solutions.

But in the same way, no solution will work if it is only done one time by one person. My one singular phone call may not do much, but if I call every day and encourage everyone I know to do the same, it will surely add up.

So, don’t make one phone call and call it a day. Make another tomorrow and the next day and the next day. Encourage your friends and classmates and coworkers to do the same. Will all of this combined save the world? Unlikely, but we have to keep trying.

As I’ve said on other apps, I would rather go down with my voice to be heard and advocating online than sit back and do nothing.

Let this be your stepping stone into activism. I talk about phone calls because it’s a very accessible form of activism that nearly everyone can do. If that’s the only form of activism you can do, fine. But if you can do more and want to do more, let this be your gateway into activism. Start emailing and canvassing and making your own content and protesting. Whatever works for you! Learn more about at-home activism here.

Keep up the good work. I applaud anyone who uses their voice for good instead of sitting idly by. We can make change. Let’s keep banding together and get louder as we encourage more and more people to join in.

As always, remember that your small actions make a big difference in the long run :)

Emma