Two weeks ago, fearing the impending shutdown, I sent my congressman and senators an email about the ACA and why it was important to me. I got e-mails from all three of them — Tim Scott and Joe Wilson both sent me on topic responses, but I just got a form letter from Lindsey Graham saying that he’d respond later. And he did, finally.
I am not sure what I expected, but I figured if it took him this long to send me an e-mail in response, it’d actually acknowledge what my opinion on the issue at hand is or give some indication that he (or someone on his staff) at least skimmed my letter.
Dear Ashley:
Thank you for contacting me regarding the vote to defund the Affordable Care Act (ACA). I have always opposed the ACA and proudly voted in support of the House passed bill to fund the government and defund the ACA. Unfortunately, with Democrats controlling the Senate, they were able to remove the defunding language without a single Republican vote. The ACA has been and will remain a financial disaster for our nation. For this reason I will continue to work towards repealing the ACA. As the Senate considers this issue I will keep your comments in mind.
My job as your United States Senator is to represent your interests. While I cannot guarantee we will see eye-to-eye on every issue, I can guarantee you I will give your thoughts and opinions the consideration they deserve. Hearing directly from you about the problems facing our nation helps me better serve constituents like you and the people of South Carolina as a whole. I hope you will always feel free to pick up the phone, write, or email about this, or any other issue, that comes before the Senate.
If you are online, I would also encourage you to visit my website — http://lgraham.senate.gov — as it has information on the most recent activities before the Senate. While there you can sign up for my e-mail newsletter, Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube pages which will provide the latest information, and my up-to-the-minute views on the major issues facing our nation.
Thank you again for taking time from your busy day to contact my office. I look forward to hearing from you again in the future and truly appreciate the opportunity to represent your interests in the United States Senate.
You’ve had many opportunities to represent my interests, Senator, I look forward to the day when you actually do.
Yeah, I get the same responses from my representatives. They claim they want time to process the e-mail when, in fact, they just need to time to put together their canned answer that they send to anyone that sent an e-mail with the keyword ACA or Obamacare or whatever.
For real fun, try sending an e-mail about something that isn’t a hot topic. I sent an e-mail to my congress critters a couple of years ago about explicit collusion in the marketplace (actually illegal, but I haven’t seen enforced since the 80s), and the responses were all canned responses to something that I didn’t write about, but each of the congress critters (probably some underpaid or unpaid staff) sent the canned response that they had on-hand that was what they thought was kind of / sort of close to the subject.
Not sure about your representatives, but mine have no interest in actually interacting with their constituents unless it pushes forward one of their own agenda items. And this is true for both Republicans and Democrats.
I’m unfortunate enough to have a real Tea Party wingnut as my Representative. I’ve taken to commenting a lot on his Facebook page. I don’t bother to send him e-mails or letters anymore. It’s actually rather fun. Even more fun is harassing my only slightly less wingnutty State senator, who is also a major Tea Party supporter. The reason is that he actually responds sometimes, and I can honestly say that I am a constituent.
“I can guarantee you I will give your thoughts and opinions the consideration they deserve.”
I can’t tell you how much I respect that kind of language. I bet he thinks your thoughts and opinions deserve no consideration whatsoever.
i know