Does it make sense to write to politicians?

Posted 2024-10-02

In the past few months I've taken to writing more to my member of parliament and member of the assemblée nationale to ask that they take certain positions and express my opinion on certain issues. I'm torn on if this is something worth doing.

In favor of it:

• it really isn't that difficult
• politicians do have some degree of power
• politicians do behave differently based on what their constituents want

Against it:

• I have literally never received a response or acknowledgment
• politicians act against the interests of their electors all the time

At this point I don't expect much to happen from my actions. I'm usually not acting as part of an organized letter writing campaign, so there's definitely an absence of organizing. Still though, if I'm not going to organize such a campaign, I might as well speak my mind.

Beyond this, I'm not sure if most political actions are working. Plenty of protests don't have clear methods to achieve their demands. Political parties have the tension between a shot at governing and keeping the ideologically consistent beliefs tbat make them special. Letters at least make sense until there's something better.

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