Oftentimes when an issue comes up I'm told to write to congress and complain about it, but it's not that easy. I've already stated each member of the House has 700,000 constituents, and if you're a senator you can have several million. It's difficult to keep track of what the people from your state or district want. Therefore congressmen must pay attention only to their voters and no one else. So for example, they completely ignore emails because they have no fucking idea if they're your representative or not. Think about that: Emailing your congressman is a complete waste of time because the staff is going to get rid of it anyway. That's why I always mock online petitions: No one gives a shit. No one in power is listening. You can say four million people signed it, but the politicians will look at that and say, "Okay, but what percentage of that is going to vote for me?"

Even regular mail can be useless. For example, I'm really interested in astronomy, but the House chairman of the Subcommittee of Science, Space, and Technology is Lamar Smith from the 21st district of Texas. If I send a letter about funding to NASA or whatever I care about, his staff is going to take one look at my address and without even opening the envelope send it to the staff of Charles Rangel, my district's representative, who judging from his tenure in congress doesn't really give a shit about space and astronomy. It would be better for me to either pretend I live somewhere in the 21st district or have a friend from that area contact Smith because he's not going to listen to me.

It's frustrating but understandable. They can only take in so much communication, and actual people the congressmen are representing are lost in the noise of people from other parts of the country. Still, I'd like for politicians to think about our nation as a whole as opposed to their tiny little block. If it seems all over the country people want something but only your tiny area doesn't, you have to make a choice: Do I agree to what my voters want or what the nation wants?