Well, yesterday was truly something. Our illustrious Senate took the bold and visionary step of agreeing to discuss the health care bill! Calloo, callay!
You know, I really wouldn't mind the Senate's glacial pace if what they did was truly "deliberative," but the GOoPers spouting the same tired talking points in stiff, forced colloquies just doesn't cut it. At least the House HCR debate brought us such gems as Boehner's "hyperbowl" and Bachmann's searing insight that this bill could "potentially destroy the economic economy." Now that made for some fun liveblogging!
But I do digress. The Senate, having bravely taken this first step to move HCR forward, promptly lit right out of town to go home for Thanksgiving. This is where we come in...
Of course, this part only applies to people with Senators behaving badly, but I'm sure you've already inferred that all of the above means office visits, office visits, office visits, even if by "visit," you just mean "protest outside." That totally counts!
Coordinate as much protest activity at your Senator's home office as possible. If there are local Thanksgiving events with cameras nearby, do your best to get coverage. In fact, if you do coordinate a protest, say, Tuesday, call local radio and teevee stations beforehand, or send them a press release. See if you can't gin up a little pre-coverage. And, of course, recruit, recruit, recruit and advertise, advertise, advertise.
Which brings us to this diary's title. Letters to the editor are a great way to both garner attention for an issue (for those of you whose Senators are doing the right thing) and to influence people (for those of you with intransigent prats for Senators). Obviously, LTEs in states like, oh say...Arkansas are critically important right now. The Dem problem children really need to be given what for and to hear it from all quarters. But the rest of us can still send in LTEs in vociferous support of a real public option, not one designed to fail with triggers and God knows what else.
So please join me in doing so, because the thing about LTEs is this: they really, truly don't matter if you're not a local. The chances of a newspaper running an out-of-state LTE are about those of Palin winning on Jeopardy! So we need Kossacks all across the country who are willing to write in to their local newspapers to get the message through - to Senators to do the right thing and to your fellow citizens to also demand the Senators do the right thing.
For example, I do not live in Maine, but boy have I had some choice words for lil' Olympia. I would be delighted to write a scathing LTE about her, but I cannot reach Maine audiences. Everybody here hates Lieberman with the intensity of 1,000 suns, but Connecticut isn't big enough for us all, etc.
So let's do this together! If you are in a problem Senator state, but just don't have the inclination for LTEs, speak up! Someone will be thrilled to help you rip Landrieu or whomever a new one for an LTE.
If your Senators are behaving, but you just don't have the inclination for LTEs, speak up! Someone will be thrilled to help you extol the virtues of a trigger-free public option and the paramount importance of passing health care reform.
If you are good with the turn of a phrase, speak up; let's help people craft the best, most compelling LTEs evar! If we are really motivated with it, we could even keep tabs on which cities/newspapers have been targeted, etc. I will update the diary with any feedback I get.
And now, the nitty gritty:
LTEs - you usually get about two shortish paragraphs out of an LTE, depending on your paper's word limits for them. It's best to choose two or three points to drive home really well rather than make as many points as possible. They're, like, the haiku of political punditry, only not so elegant.
Ls from Hell and their fellow reprobates - if your LTE is going to a problem Senator state, the strongest talking point should be that they MUST vote for cloture. Implore others in your state to send the same message. Make the LTE as state-specific as possible, e..g, if public opinion in said state favors the public option, use that. Arkansas letters can remind people that Lincoln is up for re-election here in 2010 and how her HCR vote will make that very interesting indeed. Etc.
Well behaved Senators - keep reiterating how imperative health care reform is and how a strong, trigger-free public option is the best reform possible. And we do want the best, don't we? Isn't that our birthright as Americans or something? ; P
So comeOnYouKnowYouWanna! Let's make sure our Senators have a very educational Thanksgiving. I don't know how the weather is where you are, but it is a cold and rainy Sunday for me - just perfect for an LTE workshop!