Calling the office or faxes work better than e-mail. I suspect a text is a lower tier than e-mail.
Are faxes really still a thing?
Resistbot: Contact your officials by sending a text
61–70 of 89 posts
Re: Resistbot: Contact your officials by sending a text
#62Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think there's a more recent flip side to it. The two most recent Republican presidents got into office while failing to win the popular vote. Prior to Bush, that hadn't happened since the 19th century. In that context the GOP learned from those experiences that it's more important to have the right rules keep you in power than it is to actually have the support of the governed.
That seems more likely to be because the GOP has rigorously cultivated a base that's advantaged by the electoral college. It's just weird how much culture warring happens over this when most people are ambivalent at best, and the types of voting restrictions we're talking about don't have much of an impact on turnout.[0] I suppose everyone has to have a hobby, but I guess I kind of expect this stuff to track things t…
I think it's wrong to generalize from voter id laws to "the types of voting restrictions we're talking about". Other stuff that's being pushed:
- limitations on early voting
- limitations on mail voting windows
- criminalizing helping people return their mail ballots (including disabled people)
- sending mail ballots not specifically requested
- voter roll purges
When these are paired with stuff that isn't statutory (fewer voting machines per capita causing long lines at particular polling places), I don't think it's a stretch to think there would be aggregate impacts that are significant given the narrow margins that we often tend to see.
Re: Resistbot: Contact your officials by sending a text
#63Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm not strongly in favor of voter id laws (the deep blue area I live in has them). I just think it's dishonest to refer to them as "voter suppression". And I agree that there's no evidence of substantial voter fraud.
Making it harder for people to vote is literally voter suppression. You might argue that it is ineffective voter suppression, but I don't think you can argue that adding unnecessary steps to voting, and making penalties for making mistakes harsher while making it easier to make mistakes, is anything else.
> Making it harder for people to vote is literally voter suppression
As I said upthread, it's "literally true but dishonest". Barring children from voting is literally voter suppression but calling it that is stupid.
> I don't think you can argue that adding unnecessary steps to voting, and making penalties for making mistakes harsher while making it easier to make mistakes, is anything else.
Reasonable people can disagree over whether showing an id to vote is "unnecessary". The fact remains that voter id laws are not unreasonable, not beyond the pale, most Americans support them, and this whole thing is a manufactured political drama.
Re: Resistbot: Contact your officials by sending a text
#64Earlier quoted context omitted.
Making it harder for people to vote is literally voter suppression. You might argue that it is ineffective voter suppression, but I don't think you can argue that adding unnecessary steps to voting, and making penalties for making mistakes harsher while making it easier to make mistakes, is anything else.
> Making it harder for people to vote is literally voter suppression As I said upthread, it's "literally true but dishonest". Barring children from voting is literally voter suppression but calling it that is stupid. > I don't think you can argue that adding unnecessary steps to voting, and making penalties for making mistakes harsher while making it easier to make mistakes, is anything else. Reasonable people can di…
> Barring children from voting is literally voter suppression
Actually, no, it's not. Maybe this is pedantic, but children are not, and have never been, putative voters and therefore are not being suppressed.
Minority groups less likely to have IDs are voters, however. 8% of white Americans do not have government photo ID, whereas 25% of African-American citizens do not[1].
[1] https://www.aclu.org/other/oppose-voter-id-legislation-fact-...
Re: Resistbot: Contact your officials by sending a text
#65All the examples on the splash page are current Democrat priorities. Even if you are left, you are unlikely to agree with 100% of one party's platform. (If you do, start thinking critically please.) Can this tool be used to support your own priorities or is it just a retweet/amplify button for the Democrat party line?
The first example I see is expanded access to voting rights. Since when did this become a partisan issue? Between January 1 and December 7, at least 19 states passed 34 laws restricting access to voting [1]. This should be a concern for any American citizen with the right to vote; don’t turn this into some politicized drama. Let me be clear; this is the very foundation of our democracy. I find it simply appalling tha…
Can you name a single modern or western country that doesn’t require ID to vote? As tech people here, we understand the concept of authentication and KYC. Even India and Mexico, Canada, All of Europe require ID to vote. The only argument against ID to vote in order to ensure only eligible voters and only 1 vote, is blatantly political. And if it’s racist, then so too must be any form of ID based covid passport which is being pushed hard by the same people opposing voter ID.
Re: Resistbot: Contact your officials by sending a text
#66Earlier quoted context omitted.
Coupling a free and easy to acquire national ID for every citizen with the requirement to show your ID when voting is the obvious compromise. It makes one wonder why almost all the people pushing for voter ID laws refuse to engage with this compromise.
Because the people pushing for voter ID don't actually care about voter ID, they care about maintaining the current inequality in ability to vote.
100%.
Re: Resistbot: Contact your officials by sending a text
#67Earlier quoted context omitted.
As I said, this is a "politicized drama". There is no solid evidence that voter id laws have any impact on voter turnout. The vast majority of Americans (80%) of all skin color support these laws. Describing them as "voter restriction laws" is literally true but dishonest and dishonesty is bad.
Laws shouldn't exist just because people think they'd be a good idea. There's also no evidence that voter ID laws prevent voter fraud, or even that voter fraud happens at any meaningful rate. Advocating for unnecessary restrictions without evidence is dishonest and dishonesty is bad.
There is no evidence that someone will ever try to rob your house. You should remove the lock on your door.
Re: Resistbot: Contact your officials by sending a text
#68Nice initiative but I fear the principle of this design is flawed and will only prove once more that the working class as a whole has no real power. Technology can solve many of the problems of society but I don't think it will in this fashion. Asking nicely or many times won't do much because the people who run a society are the ones who control production, not the ones who mediate policies. In short, this is not th…
They do have power but that comes from voting and people need to be willing to vote and vote consistently. If you are only willing to contact your elected officials using this bot and prior methods like letter writing and email were too much for you, then there is a decent chance that you are too lazy to take any other action. Imagine if you had a manager who was only willing to tell you to work hard with a Slack bot…
The problem is not ignorance of the constituents interests or their volition.
The political system this claims to help was not created by and for the working class, it was thought out, designed and implemented by and for the bourgeoisie. It can't serve the majority even if it tried. There are no mechanisms for it, and, not only that, the whole system will prevent their creation. It's not about adding plugins, it's about changing the system.
This app was probably funded by the democrats to seem more radical and progressive, but is just a tool for aesthetics. They use these to gather well meaning non conforming professionals and citizens around actions that are ultimately inconsequential and also wont waste the opportunity to trigger conservatives while they're at it, adding kindling the useless culture war that owns the US.
Re: Resistbot: Contact your officials by sending a text
#69I would consider using this but don't trust their privacy policy. People have been canned for expressing political opinions or donating to political causes.
How do I know this company won't leak my information? This is especially a concern for people they would not consider political allies. Is there a more anon way to use it than giving your phone number?
Re: Resistbot: Contact your officials by sending a text
#70Earlier quoted context omitted.
That seems more likely to be because the GOP has rigorously cultivated a base that's advantaged by the electoral college. It's just weird how much culture warring happens over this when most people are ambivalent at best, and the types of voting restrictions we're talking about don't have much of an impact on turnout.[0] I suppose everyone has to have a hobby, but I guess I kind of expect this stuff to track things t…
I think it's wrong to generalize from voter id laws to "the types of voting restrictions we're talking about". Other stuff that's being pushed: - limitations on early voting - limitations on mail voting windows - criminalizing helping people return their mail ballots (including disabled people) - sending mail ballots not specifically requested - voter roll purges When these are paired with stuff that isn't statutory…
Could be, I suppose. Though for most of those, I'd expect them to have approximately the same impact as voter id laws. The big exception being voter roll purges in states without same day registration, that one seems most likely to have an impact.
> given the narrow margins that we often tend to see.
Most elections really aren't that narrow (hence the high incumbency rate). The few that are just end up dominating the news cycles.