The blame for the situation we citizens are in can be found in a mirror. The Founders knew that the only way to retain a Republic was for every citizen to be well educated. Education in the sense they meant was that all citizens must know not only the structure of the government and the appropriate roles of the various levels of government, but also the individuals they elect. Education is the duty of each individual, not someone else. The selection of officials by citizens is to be made by an informed citizenry who put on the Mantel of Responsibility and take the time to know the individuals running for office, to FIRST HAND question those running and not abdicating their power nor responsibility to someone else to spoon feed them the information as though they were children. The Founders also knew that the Citizenry was to always maintain a watchful, if not cynical, eye on the activities of those in office and when they went out of the bounds of the Constitution the Citizens were to take appropriate action to ‘educate’ the offending official into seeing ‘The Light’ of his misdeeds. The Founders also knew that a dutiful citizen was to have the courage of conviction to stand against any official who was in violation of the Constitutional limitations of their office or who passed any law that did not pass Constitutional muster. The Founders knew that the only way that the integrity, and health of our Republic could only be maintained through sacrifice not only of each generation, but by each individual every day of their life. We, the citizens, must sacrifice that most precious gift; which once spent can never be regained, to ensure that the elected officials know that their every action, as duly elected officials, is being scrutinized. That one gift which can not be regained when spent is Time. We all have the same amount of time each day, week, month and year. How much time has anyone spent on standing fast for Liberty, not for ourselves but our children and grandchildren? How much time has anyone of us spent on being PROACTIVE for Liberty and not reactive? How many have volunteered their time to serve with their local Board of Election? Does not many watchful eyes prevent theft? So to answer the question, “Should we write our Congressman?” Emphatically…YES! It isn’t an issue of one letter making a difference. It isn’t an issue of a thousand or a millions of letters making a corrupt government official become honest and repenting of his criminal ways. Our Founders redressed King George repeatedly although those acts of redress never made a difference to the King of England. So just WHY did they continue to do so when it was so obvious that they were not going to get any redress to their grievances? Simply because they had continued animated discourse to the last when the American Revolution went ‘hot’ and could in all good conscience say that the only recourse left was armed conflict NOT of their own making, but that of the King of England. It would also be seen to the world that the American colonies had attempted every avenue of peaceable redress to the last as they also sought alliance with France for aid. The Founders also knew that any armed rebellion would occur with their families by their sides, as potential targets or victims. The Founders knew that such an armed conflict would wreak havoc on all the citizens of the colonies at every level, from economic to placing innocents in harms way. Only a madman or fool would want to have his family made a target of an opposing army and risk their lives when hope could still be held onto that at some point redress could be accomplished. But to have armed conflict thrust upon them was what resulted in the tyranny of the king. Should we, with all our communicative technology, do less to gain redress than the Founding Fathers?

More appropriate questions should be:
How much time have you spent daily serving as a volunteer to your Board of Election?
How much time do you spend observing the actions of local elected official, and/or state officials; even when the topic of the day does not impact you but someone else?
How much have you contacted you state legislators on topics pertinent to your city, county or state?
How much television, sports, or other activity time are you willing to sacrifice to make sure that your children and grandchildren will live in Liberty?
Those are the questions to be posed and answered.
Lastly, I am also including myself in this missive, because I too have fallen short in my DUTY to the future of this Republic and the cause of Liberty.

Don’t forget the main crux of the issue: gov’t is about POWER. Don’t give it to them. the worst thing you can do FOR them is produce offspring – that more than anything gives them MORE power & money (thru taxes) to accomplish their wicked goals.
Another thing I’ve noticed – when something politicians want is denied to them, they make up for it by turning the screw tighter some other way that the pubic doesn’t get to vote on. For example when Schwarzenegger “lost” & the public voted for farm animals to have more freedom, he turned around & made it more expensive for pet owners; the veterinarians had no alternative but to pass the added expenses on to the customers. That’s just one example.
They ALWAYS got an ace up their sleeve. Watch for it.

When you have politicians that have been entrenched for many terms they have developed a money pit large enough to destroy any challenger with total disregard for the constituancy. That is why any individual letter to them is not worth the time it takes to write it. Term limits and zero perks for any legislator is past due.
The big question is, “How do you fix stupid?” when we have seen the electorate degenerate to such a low level of conscience.
Heres a novel idea, for every advertisement that a politician creates to embellish himself they must create one that is of like content for his opponent. Would that clean up politicians?

Remember the quote from Edmund Burke “All that’s necessary for evil to triumph, is for the good man to do nothing.” I may have paraphrased, but the meaning is still there. We cannot just do nothing. But, we do need to try new ways to get the attention of our elected representatives to let them know we are watching. Right now, as a christian, I’m praying for this country with all my heart, but like th rest of you, I feel also must take action.

When you write to your Rep and get some Form Letter in response, “REPLY” to that letter (which includes a copy of what they sent you) and chew their rear out for classifying you as some idiot who doesn’t know what’s going on! Promise them that, if they can’t take the time to respond intelligently to your concerns you’ll be working VERY HARD to replace them in the next election, with someone who can and will!

When they start getting enough letters of that nature, they’ll start paying attention. After all, they have to stand for re-election every two years and can’t stand a whole lot of organized, local opposition, and they know it…

Some of you are too cynical. Congressmen WILL listen if enough people write, email, or phone about the same thing. As some of you noted – they are interested in getting re-elected. If they find a large portion of their constituents are upset about a certain issue, it WILL get their attention.

Our system of government is not working. Why is it not working and how to change it is the big question.I feel legislators are to removed from accountability of the people. After all the lies and promises to get into office their only job is to keep lying and just pacify their constituents. It’s hard for the people to organize and change government, but if we want change, we the people can’t just keep talking, we need take action.

Buy physical silver and they will lose.

Don’t waste your time. They don’t care. They don’t “listen”. They believe they are “above it all”.
From what I hear on the streets, they are in for a rude awaking!
Why do you think they are proposing and passing all these laws? Because they know that We The People have had about enough of their constant sellouts to the “special interests”, sacrificing our health and liberties. They know that sooner or later (and sooner from what I her) we are coming for them. These new “laws” are put in place to “convince” the “attack dogs” (read; police and military) that we are the enemy/terrorists so they are “justified” in ordering our arrest and detention as we challenge the system.
I had a very interesting (to me anyway) conversation the other day with a lady who used to work at DHS. She said, “when I first started there, their job was to find the terrorists. Then, they became the terrorists. I had to leave.”

Store not your treasures upon the earth, sound familiar? We don’t love America, we love the ideals our fore fathers chose to place in her, America is temporary, a vessel to house the means, for the works of God much as our physical bodies are our vessels, corrupt them and they shall fail. Our Trust is in God alone, choose your fate, be a martyr, or a soldier,be counted as sheep or defenders of beliefs, its whats in your heart that matters. We have eternity! they have days, hours and less, they have no hope, like those who climb on the backs of others to gasp a last breath of air before drowning, desperation is their only choice.

and yet you continue to encourage people to vote as if it will do some good. what a joke. this system is going down and only god can save us now.

In my opinion the system is beyond repair. The best thing that could happen to the US would be for someone to nuke d.c. with all the politician, congressmen, corrupt judges, environmentalist, special interest groups, etc in town and thus vaporized.
Look at the odds of getting anything of real importance done with a minimum of 50% of the population somehow receiving some sort of federal benefits with no tax obligation or liabilities.
The progressives have won. It is over. Short of a revolution, things will only get worse. Not one in 100 politicians are interested in preserving the US as a Constitutional Republic.
I would like to see each state offered the chance of withdrawing from the “union” and becoming an independent country. Don’t hold your breath waiting for that to happen.

“Does writing your congressman do any good?”

This question and its answer is so removed from reality as to be laughable. In this day & age, to think there are still some who cling to false hopes, and are so naive to believe that posing questions like this one is legitimate, is beyond the pale. I can only reply, “you must be kidding.”

Seeking answers to stupid questions does not reinforce my confidence in humanity, and reminds me of these two quotes:

“The best argument against democracy is a five-minute conversation with the average voter” — Winston Churchill

“To get the right answers, you must ask the right questions.” — author unknown

I’d like to offer an alternative answer to the question that I believe offers a more realistic perspective. While Bob’s cynicism is certainly understandable, it seems it often blinds him to Truths that are more apparent upon Reasoned consideration.

Writing to your congressman accomplishes an extremely useful, and important task: it lets them know you’re watching and aware of what they’re doing. Much like cockroaches scatter when you turn on the lights, seeker deeper, darker, more secretive places to wait for their chance to again invade your home, politicians scatter in the metaphorical light of exposure, or the threat thereof. They will rebuke their own activities when the fear of their power train being yanked away from them is presented.

Realize, you don’t have to step on the roaches for them to scatter, simple turning the lights on sends them into a mad panic. Every letter sent to a politician has a cumulative effect on their panic and instinct to scatter away from the light.

So, YES, writing letters to your congressman does indeed do you good.

I generally agree that writing or phoning by an individual (or even a handful) is of little use. However, in the last 2 years, organizations who have individual liberty issues (raw milk crowd, supplements crowd, right-to-work, etc)have provided a method of “mass mailing/e-mail”, which has been fairly effective in turning votes on specific issues. (I always add the phrase “We’ll be watching how you vote”.)

But I also agree that term limits are the only REAL answer. And even that will only partially solve the problem.

I find that if you’re one person standing alone who has called or contacted your Rep or Senator, you might not get very far if they disagree with you. But if you are one of a large majority, they do tend to listen. With the recent SOPA and PIPA, there was a big upset in Congress. Several congressman changed their votes after having their offices flooded by constituent opposition to the bills.

Make no mistake, contacting your elected officials does work if we are all working together.

A little violence cuts through the legal Bull and Thomas Jefferson was right when he stated we need a revolution every 40 years.

While I am no fan of Scientology, I can’t help but agree when they describe elected officials and Criminally Insane Politicians.

I went to my Congressman’s office (Jon Runyan) the other day to discuss some public policy issues with one of his reps. I was told, we don’t do that here. Our function is constituent service. Policy decisions are handled in Washington. We are so screwed.

We shoot ourselves in the foot every time we vote for a pretty face or “gifted” orator. After voting in every election since 1958, I’m much worse off after every election cycle because the candidates that I helped to elect, and promoted by the media and BIG Money, are simply their lackeys.What we need is an honest candidate that is willing to make the unpopular decisions of reduced entitlements and return us to the Constitution that so many of us profess to LOVE. Are we, as a people, Strong enough to pay the price of setting America on the path to fixing the mess that is now called the USA? I sometimes doubt our strength of character as a country. Stand up for what you claim to believe in.

Can’t agree fast enough. Time to throw all the bums out and return to the U.S. Constitution, where the people (peers) have the say and not big money, special interest or corrupt politicians.

Calls and emails are almost useless until there are millions of them saying the same thing. The unfortunate thing is even elections seem to have little impact. The wave in November 2010 has subsided and we are deeper in debt and corruption (Obama)

Although our representatives forget those who had elected them, including their rights…keep writing for someone reads the mails. More people must watch more closely what our “representatives” are doing once they get to DC, where they are thrown into a mass of confsion and given an orientation of COG, at one time it meant “Council of Government.” It now refers to ‘Continuation of Government.”

Each Congressional District must make a united and concerted effort to find truly patriotic Americans, to elect to Congress, and the WHite House, who will not be bribed once they are in Congress and told to ” forget” the people back home…

America is the last chance to keep freedom and to tell the Globalists
to keep out of our nation…Although Science, technology have brought the world closer, it doesn’t follow that we should give up our borders
to the “New World Order” which is an enslavement of the faceless millions of little of little people who make up the world, whom an internationalist power elite contemptuously conspires to mold into ther powerful collective will.

Every time I send my rep a letter, the response is a pre-typed reply.
No personal effort of acknowledging the letter or taking care of the issue. I understand that I am only one of many, however, they have a job to do as well, and they are not doing a very good job at it at all.

As citizens, we have a responsibility to hold our congressmen accountable and to share our opinions with them. What would you suggest we do, just let them wander around doing whatever they please, without letting them know that we are out here and we are watching what they’re doing, and that we will hold them accountable when elections roll around?

Until there are term limits in place as well as a reduction in the amount of time congress is in session so its members can earn a living the old fashion way nothing will change. Furthermore, they should have to live by the same measures they impose upon the public instead of the lifestyle & benefits which they have given themselves that would make a king envious!!

Corrupt or not, the only choices we have are: vote, write letters, send emails, or call on the phone. I don’t attend political meetings (town hall meetings) for the same reason I don’t go to church (in Georgia), my 2nd Amendment Rights are suspended by the state and I have no means of protecting myself from well armed criminals, thank you Representative Gabrielle Giffords, poster child of gun control.