NetNews Usenet Archive 1992 #31/NN_1992_31.iso/spool/comp/org/eff/talk/8216

Internet Message Format | 1993-01-01 | 3.4 KB

Xref: sparky comp.org.eff.talk:8216 alt.amateur-comp:433 soc.culture.usa:9406 alt.activism:19954
Newsgroups: comp.org.eff.talk,alt.amateur-comp,soc.culture.usa,alt.activism
Path: sparky!uunet!spool.mu.edu!umn.edu!csus.edu!netcom.com!tenney
From: [e-mail] (Glenn S. Tenney)
Subject: Re: [misc.activism.progressive]  Clinton Office Requests Comments
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
Organization: Netcom - Online Communication Services (408 241-9760 guest)
References: <[e-mail]> <[e-mail]> <[e-mail]>
Date: Fri, 1 Jan 1993 08:56:28 GMT
Lines: 52

In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (Elliott Mitchell) writes:
>I'm as much in favor of e.communication to our congressmembers as anyone,
>although I think if there was a direct route from constituents' computers
>to the members, that a somewhat conservative viewpoint would dominate.
>
>Correct me if I'm wrong, but it seems that political conservatives seem
>more likely to take up new technology than liberals.  Liberals seem to be
>neo-Luddites in this respect.
>
>I didn't realize that for some time until I heard Rush Limbaugh point out
>that only liberals still have rotary telephones.  All I can say is I'm a
>liberal and I mostly have rotary telephones in my house. (That's one of the
>things Rush is good for, he makes liberals think about themselves
>(ourselves)).  So my point is that if a member were to rely heavily on
>input that came through electronic means (meaning e.mail) that the more
>conservative elements in society might have the upper hand.  No?

I ran in the primary against our incumbent (12 years) democratic
representative.  I ran what I'm told was the first on-line campaign
using Internet, AOL, and Compuserve.

1. re: Email to members of Congress
   A key plank of my campaign was that information is power and
   that we should use technologies like email to get Congress back
   in touch with the people.  I got quite a few email responses asking
   whether I expected to actually respond to email if/when elected.
   YES.  As we online denizens know, we can read our email when and
   where we choose.  It is quite easy to reply as needed.  Of course,
   I only receive 20-40 messages a day, and that would go up by an
   an order of magnitude when elected.

   The reality is that the amount of email could easily be unmanageable.
   So, staff would need to filter it into several groups.  But the
   representative would still need to skim through each message.
   Of course, I would likely look at the first screenful and decide whether
   to read further -- just as many of us do today when reading netnews.

2. re: conservative viewpoint would dominate
   My experience says no.  Well, sort of no.  Well, it's like this...
   I received gobs of email during my campaign.  Of course, some of it
   was quite thoughtful, and some was flaming (from rare to well done).
   A vast amount of the flames were from people who fell into the rough
   camp of:  All taxes are theft; almost all government is wrong; etc.
   I don't think I would classify those as 'conservative', but perhaps
   the conservatives I've met just hadn't flamed that way in person.

p.s.
No, I didn't win the primary this time.  I got 11%, though.
--
Glenn Tenney
voice: [phone]      fax: [phone]
[e-mail]          Ham radio: AA6ER