I would love to continue this thread but I don't want to turn away all
of my potential customers - lol. I'll send you a note off line.
--- In korgpolyex@yahoogroups.com, "zoinky420" <zoinky420@...> wrote:
>
> --- In korgpolyex@yahoogroups.com, "korgpolyex800" <korgpolyex800@>
> wrote:
> >
> >>
> > While in the US, did you ever write or phone your congressman?
> >
> > The reason I ask is because absolutely every single person that I've
> > spoken to that has held similar sentiments as you hold has NEVER
> > called or written their congressman. It's all whining, complaining and
> > pontificating repeating the current liberal talking points but NEVER
> > active involvement in the political process. Someone once said,
> > Democracy is not a spectator sport.
> >
>
> Well since we're already off topic!...
>
> I think that writing your congressman or other elected-official is a
> waste of time, unless you're writing a letter expousing a position your
> recipient already agrees with, in which case he or she may send copies
> of the letter to the media as means to demonstrate his or her support
> among the voters. Congressmen and other elected officials do not sit
> around in their offices wondering what position they should support,
> just waiting for someone to write them a letter telling them what to
> do. They come to politics heavy with ideology and they work in
> politics for the purpose of advancing that ideology. If it's really
> important to you to have some influence in govt, you'd be far more
> influential getting a position as a paid advisor to a politician than
> you would writing a jillion letters. Or run in an election yourself,
> and take the piss out of your competition in debates. Even becoming a
> journalist, who can slant and bias articles the way you want, would be
> more effective than sending a letter to a politician to be filed in the
> circular filing cabinet.
>
> Democracy is probably the best system available, but that does not mean
> it's a great system. By its very nature it must pander to the lowest
> common denominator (watching political tv commercials around election
> time in democratic countries demonstrates that much), and I think that
> recognizing that is of chief importance to those who seek to protect
> and bolster democracy. Holding it up as a gold standard that can do no
> wrong and must be forced upon every non-democractic population in the
> world in order to save them from dictatorial boogeymen only serves to
> weaken democracy's usefulness and popularity. Don't get me wrong, I
> supported both of the recent middle-east wars, until they were won and
> became occupations with bringing wonderous democracy to the defeated
> used as an excuse to keep pushing them around ad infinitum...
>