Nancy Pelosi has begun a discharge petition to bring extending the middle-class tax cut to a vote. That leaves a question for the men on Daily Kos:
Are you going to let a woman
fight the fight for you?
She's leading us, but it's our fight. What can
we do? Each of us can choose a Republican congressman and pressure him. If you live in a district where the elected Rep is a Republican, the choice is made for you. If you -- like me -- live in a blue district, then look for the closest Republican or the most likely to be persuaded who is close.
Then turn up the heat.
Does he hold a town hall? Go there, ask him if he'll support the petition. That vote would keep the rates down for families making less than $1/4 million. It would save those making more than that amount $8,000 a year. Come prepared with multiple copies of fact sheets to pass out to the crowd.
Write LTEs to papers in his district or papers which circulate in his district.
Many small-town papers have blogs. One advantage of blogs over LTEs is that you generally have to put your city in a LTE sig. You can sign onto most blogs via FaceBook. Post questions and comments on the blog regarding the congressman's refusal (assuming he doesn't sign) to have a vote on this issue.
Maybe he won't sign. Maybe he's more committed to Republican leadership, the Tea Party, or The Club For Slow Growth than to his constituents. Fine ( well, not really fine, but ...) Even so, raise the issue so that people ask what he finds wrong with extending the middle-class tax cut.
Remember that, the more pressure that each one feels locally:
1) the more cover that he has with Boehner if he signs,
2) the more dissatisfaction his electorate feels if he doesn't,
3) the more pressure others feel -- "You're asking me to walk the plank on this one, but Johnson is close to caving. It'll pass, and I'll be blamed for opposing it."
4) the more work reactionary groups have to do to counteract you.
It would be well, of course, to make sure that local Democratic congressmen have signed up. (Before the new congress begins, and we hope this is settled before then, newly elected congressmen don't have any more right to sign than you and I do.) It would be wiser, though, to gently ask those who haven't before you put on any pressure. Their leadership wants them to sign.