I am represented by a liberal Democrat, so I have to go elsewhere to troll congressional staffers. I have identified a gentleman by the same name as mine who lives in Darrell Issa’s district, so I represent myself as him when I call that office.
My latest effort involves the movement to de-fund Planned Parenthood. The object is to pin down the reason for this legislation.
We all know that this is about abortion, punishing poor people, and the bogus videos released last year, but that is not the sort of candid response this question gets. The staffer agrees that it is a legislative priority to harm millions of poor and mostly non-white women, but has no idea why. This sparks a back and forth about how important can it be if the congressman hasn’t even stated a reason?
If you have a few minutes and you live in a red district, give your GOP congresscritter a call and ask the staffer why the representative feels it is important that OTHER people take one for a team that he doesn’t even play on.
I find it helpful to point out that if congress wanted to specifically target poor women for harm, this would be an excellent way to do it, but since that harm is only “collateral damage” to a greater good, what EXACTLY is that “greater good.?” I always have more time than the staffer does, so I stay on the line, asking essentially the same question, until it goes dead.