Yep, but only when

1) we organized a campaign and showed up en masse at their office,

2) when I facilitated a Congressional primary debate as head of a direct action org, and also

3) when we organized a response to Dem sexual misconduct so strong it threatened party power https://twitter.com/girlziplocked/status/1334896600628518912

Midwest Academy's organizing manual is a favorite for many reasons, but it first earned my love with an intro that says basically, "electeds will tell you polite letters are the best way to talk them into making change, that's because they don't want you to make them make chamge"

You need them to respect you to make change, and you don't earn respect by making nice.

I spent a few years experimenting t doing the beginning steps of party insider stuff in Philly back in my mid-20's.

It got me into rooms personally, but I never could take change back out.

If I'd added a little more ass-kissing I could have gotten a cushy job probably.

Ingratitation can get you personal benefits (a gig, a donation, a job, constituent services assistance), but it does not earn you respect, which means... no systemic change.

Electeds start respecting you when they believe you pose a threat to their power.

That could be their ability to get elected, their power within the party, their power within their elected body, their power to garner donations.

You can force change only when you pose a threat.

Before we started doing sexual misconduct organizing re: the PA Dems, I had smile-and-handshake fave recognition with a lot of electeds.

Some even knew my name.

Some even grabbed drinks with me.

To the extent that I could move *any* of them, though, it was because they knew I ran a direct action coalition that had some ability to challenge their power.

Smile and handshake and drinks were more about hoping to keep me in check than liking me.

When we started doing sexual misconduct accountability work, though?

When I moved beyond politely saying, "I was assaulted, please make change" and on to "PA Dems actively facilitates rape culture, either change and kick out the predators or we will make you gtfo"?

Handshakes and smiles disappeared *real* fast.

All those years of personal goodwill evaporated like Everclear spilled in a frat house kitchen in the summer.

As far as most electeds were concerned, I was persona non grata.

And then we organized.

We forced the governor to demand the state party chair's resignation.

We forced that resignation.

We held officials accountable.

The Philly Dems rescinded the planned endorsement of an incumbent predator based on our organizing, and he lost.

When we began organizing in support of the women alleging misconduct by State Senator @daylinleach, people said it was quixotic.

He sued us trying to shut us up, but in doing so created a scenario where sitting Congresspeople were held accountable and came out against him.

I am not well-liked within the Democratic Party, by electeds or party operatives.

Not even a little.

They take my calls in a different way now, though.

Not because I've ingratitated myself, but because I've shown I can organize.

Any level of politician will assure you that just one letter can make a difference.

It can, on the off chance that they decide that you're a useful pawn or sycophant or story, or you're making a tiny ask that will only change life for yourself or maybe a couple others.

To make structural change, though, you need enough organized power to threaten *their* power.

One letter doesn't demonstrate that power.

Twenty letters to a council person, though?

A hundred to a mayor?

A thousand to a senator?

You'll still get a bullshit form letter, but more importantly you'll get their attention.

And if you can sustain that energy, and continue to demonstrate power, and put it behind a demand in a focused, disciplined, and escalating way?

That's how you force systemic change.

And over time, as you demonstrate your ability to leverage that power against them, politicians stop trying to convince you to ingratiate yourself and start to treat you with grudging respect.

Not because you're fancy personally, but because you're part of a movement they fear.

Long-lasting electeds last because they figure out how to be seen as responsive to popular will.

Corporate donations make it easier for them to buy that perception, but they only go so far.

Organizing still works.

Become the popular will, and politicians bend.

When I started out as a student organizer, I honestly thought US "democracy" was so far gone that all we could do was organize to make some of the window dressing less awful.

Now, twenty years later, I know the truth: we are as powerful as we let ourselves be.

Establishment politicians know that, so they make us think that the best we can ever do under this system is ingratitiate ourselves to them and hope they will be nice or kind enough to listen and do us small favors.

They do not want us to realize our own power.

Form letters are designed to make us feel small and powerless, but that's a deception.

We have the power to organize and demand and win change under this system, unfair as it is.

If we do that and build enough power, we can fundamentally change the system itself.

Fuck form letters, but always remember that the real goal of a letter campaign isn't to appeal to the better nature of an elected.

It's to demonstrate your power to them.

The form letter isn't the answer that matters.

The answer that matters comes when you're fully escalated.

Letter campaigns are a warning and a threat.

They say, x number of us are mad enough to sit down and do the unsexy task of contacting your office.

They say, you don't want to see what happens when we get madder.

And if they don't respond, you show them.

You show them with visits and actions against their donors and sit-ins at their fundraisers and by generally showing you are part of a movement that can and will strategically and methodically erode their power if they ignore you.

You do that effectively?

You'll still probably get a form letter response the next time your movement launches a letter campaign.

To the elected, though, your letter will mean something *very* different.

The end!

(And also, follow @girlziplocked, she has phenomenal politics and this thread is just musing in response to her prompt, not criticism!)