The Indivisible Guide offered great advice about contacting just your own legislators — the ones for whom you are the constituent. This changed the way a lot of my fellow activists thought about how to influence policy.
Taking a lesson from Indivisible, if you’re not one of Joe Manchin’s constituents in West Virginia I’m pretty confident he doesn’t give a flying f**k that you’re very disappointed by the way he’s dragging his feet on climate spending. And his position on the filibuster. And voting rights. And abortion. And a bunch of other things.
Meanwhile Kyrsten Sinema — who also might not be your senator — sports a ring that’s embossed with the words f**k off. It’s possible she’s even less invested in your opinion than Joe Manchin is.
Does that mean you have to watch helplessly while these two senators toss away what could be our last chance to enact Democratic legislative priorities and possibly rescue democracy itself?
It does not. You have more leverage over Joe Manchin than you might think, even if you can happily say you don’t live in West Virginia. You don’t have to move to Arizona to get Kyrsten Sinema to uphold Democratic values.
Here’s why. Legislators answer to more constituencies than just the electorate in their districts, and you can take advantage of that fact.
A Democratic West Virginia Senator's constituencies
Constituency |
|
What they want |
How they can exert power over the WV senator |
The voters in West Virginia |
|
Have their interests represented. |
Vote & campaign for or against the senator; organize fellow voters to do the same. |
Other senators, particularly the Democratic ones |
|
(1) Get reelected themselves.
(2) Get their legislative priorities passed. |
(1) Horse trading over legislative priorities.
(2) Support or opposition for the WV senator’s initiatives, committee assignments, fundraising, etc. |
PAC donors and lobbyists |
|
Achieve their legislative priorities. |
Offer or withhold support in a variety of ways. |
You have more leverage than you think because every senator wants something. Every senator has an agenda that involves moving certain policies forward (or backward) at the behest of the voters and donors and lobbyists whom they serve. Achieving that agenda requires the cooperation of their fellow senators, especially the ones in their own party.
Now, I don’t know what specific policies or spending priorities Joe Manchin is sweet on. Maybe he wants to toss some deregulation toward the pharmaceutical sector, or maybe he’s trying to put that next generation military vehicle under contract with his preferred vendor. It doesn’t matter that I don’t know, because his fellow senators and their staffs do know what’s on Joe Manchin’s wish list, and they can ensure he gets it… or not.
If other Democratic senators are sufficiently motivated, they will use the leverage of horse trading and the general senatorial tendency to “go along & get along” in order to convince Joe Manchin to get with the Democratic program.
What will get your Democratic senator to start leaning harder on Joe Manchin? I encourage you to get creative in the comments, but my first recommendation is to complain loudly. Contact your Democratic senators (at their senate offices and also their campaign offices) with messages like these:
- You ran for office claiming you were a “proven leader” who could get things done in the senate, so why are you letting Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema put up roadblocks?
- Why are you letting Manchin and Sinema bargain away the Democratic Party’s priorities? I expect you to be more effective than that.
- Oh, you’re asking for a campaign donation? I’d be happy to send something after the Democratic majority eliminates the filibuster, approves the spending bills and passes voting rights legislation. You all have to produce results first though.
- I’m tired of seeing a tiny number of Democratic senators wreck the party’s ability to get things done. Fix it.
The leverage is there for you to use, but you have to be willing to use it.
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Part of me dreads publishing this diary because I know there will be commenters who will wail, “OMG you’re saying we should attack our Democratic senators OMG OMG.” No I’m not saying that, but I believe very strongly that our relationship with our elected representatives is a transactional one. We support them specifically so they can support us. It’s okay to demand things. It’s okay to insist.