I've been reading recently many strategies to oppose Trump, and one of them is how to contact your congressman; phone calls are probably the most effective. However as I've said that probably doesn't matter; chances are you're already in an area who voted for Clinton and your Democratic representative was going to stonewall Trump's policies anyway. Let's take the wall built on the Mexican border for example. I call my representative Espaillat and my senators Schumer and Gillibrand and tell them I don't like it. Being Democrats (and one being a Dominican) based in New York, they definitely wouldn't vote for that. And that's the extent of what I can do. However the Democrats are facing a Republican majority in congress and a very, very pro-wall president. If I call one of those Republican congressmen, they're going to tell me to go fuck myself because I'm not their constituent.

As people amass in cities those states get more representatives, but the senate is still two people per state. So conservative Montana gets just as much say in this Mexican wall as liberal California. Honestly if you really want to change policy, you need to make the states more... purple I guess. The cities are digging their heals in with their liberalism just as the countryside is with the conservatism, so that means the people in congress can remain safely on their idealogical side. If you represent a district that is mixed with liberals and conservatives, you're forced to listen to both points of view. For my part, NYS has many conservative enclaves in the rural parts, but NYC overshadows them so much Schumar and Gillibrand will heed the city over everything else. Espaillat being a Dominican would still protest the wall on principle, but even then outside of it this an extremely Democratic district, to the point that Republicans don't even bother campaigning.

What I'm getting at is at the end of the day these hot-button issues are usually decided along party lines, and chances are demographically you're already living in an area surrounded by people who agree with you. Calling their offices aren't going to change shit. If you really, really are emotionally involved in an issue, you have to move to a place that's on the opposite spectrum and then try to influence the congressman that way. Except no one is going to do that because they don't want to have to live near people who disagree with them.