Letters to the Editor — They matter
Letters to the Editor — They matter
It may seem old-fashioned in the digital age, but letters-to-the-editor can have a big impact in several unique ways:
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- Consider the Source(s). When we call our Members’ offices, they hear about it from their staffs — which is hugely important. But when your letter is published, they’ll find out in a Google Alert, unprepared. Then they’ll hear from staff and spend time debating if they need to respond. Often, a letter is brought up by the Member’s friends, donors, and spouse. Members can hear about negative letters for a few days, each time striking a chord that is both personal and publicly embarrassing.
- Respect your Elders. Ok, youngin’, you might not read newspapers, but you know who does? Older people. You know what else older people do? Vote. Think your Members of Congress know that? You bet they do.
- Burst Your Bubble. Republican politicians get to make up alternative facts every day because they knows most of their supporters are not consuming the media that will call them out. Letters to the editor offer us the chance to burst through the media bubble to get our opinions and real facts in front of people who might not see them otherwise.
- Newspapers are still read all over. Newspapers may be dying but it is a slow death. Most mid-size cities have at least one paper with over 100,000 readers. In smaller cities, like Toledo, OH, a majority of households get the paper.
- Share. You’ve been published! Get a shareable link or take a picture and tell everyone you know the old-fashioned way: Email, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, etc.
- Consider the Source(s). When we call our Members’ offices, they hear about it from their staffs — which is hugely important. But when your letter is published, they’ll find out in a Google Alert, unprepared. Then they’ll hear from staff and spend time debating if they need to respond. Often, a letter is brought up by the Member’s friends, donors, and spouse. Members can hear about negative letters for a few days, each time striking a chord that is both personal and publicly embarrassing.
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Tips on Writing Letters
Every paper has their own rules for publication, but these guidelines should work for most.
- Keep it to 200 words. And there’s nothing wrong with 1 or 2 sentences.
- Avoid vulgarity.
- Focus on a single issue.
- Tell personal stories when applicable.
- Angry is fine but not nasty. Use strong terms to describe actions you disagree with but don’t call names or mock people’s appearance or personal lives.
- Stay local. If you live in Kentucky, Missouri papers don’t care what you think.
- Focus on local members (more than one is fine) and their place in the larger national problem and avoid generalizations about conservatives and Republicans.
Most publications will not print multiple letters from the same person in a single six-week span, so after you get published, you’ll want to shift your energies to other outlets for a bit.
For more, google: submit letter-to-the-editor [TOWN NAME]
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Confirm your voter registration — before it's too late
Confirm your voter registration — before it's too late
Pennsylvania has already flipped the first of 24 seats Democrats need to take the House in 2018, winning a deeply red district by just 627 votes. And we’re predicting more to come. Signs of Trump dissatisfaction can be seen all over the country: nearly 40 state legislative Districts have flipped Democratic since his election, and even deep crimson Alabama got swept up in the blue wave!
Each victory has a common thread: Democrats getting out the vote in full force on Election Day.
So don’t delay: check your voter registration status and ensure you’re prepared for midterms.
Nobody said it was going to be easy to win back Congress. It’s going to take Democrats in every state showing up on the day that matters. But if you ever wondered whether your vote made a difference, look to Pennsylvania, where 627 individuals out of almost 230,000 just moved us one step closer to blocking Trump’s racist, war-mongering, anti-transgender, corporation-loving (we could go on…) agenda.
And with your help, we’re going to tackle it one vote at a time.