ECP NetHappenings
Turn Your Despair Into Action
Please Feel Free To Forward
FOR THOSE OF YOU LOOKING TO TURN YOUR despair INTO ACTION, here’s some advice from a high-level staffer for a Senator.
There are two things that we should be doing all the time right now.
You should NOT be bothering with online petitions or emailing.
1) The best thing you can do to be heard and get your congressperson to pay attention is to have face-to-face time — if they have town halls, go to them.
❤️️ Go to their local offices. If you’re in DC, try to find a way to go to an event of theirs.
❤️️ Go to the “mobile offices” that their staff hold periodically (all these times are located on each congressperson’s website). When you go, ask questions. A lot of them. And push for answers. The louder and more vocal and present you can be at those the better.
2) But those in-person events don’t happen every day. So, the absolute most important thing that people should be doing every day is calling.
YOU SHOULD MAKE DAILY CALLS:
2 each (DC office and your local office) to your 2 Senators & your 1 Representative.
The staffer was very clear that any sort of online contact basically gets immediately ignored (note: I did get reply from both Fetterman and McCormick using online contact), and letters pretty much get thrown in the trash (unless you have a particularly strong emotional story — but even then it’s not worth the time it took you to craft that letter).
Calls are what all the congress people pay attention to.
Every single day, the Senior Staff and the Senator get a report of the 3 most-called-about topics for that day at each of their offices (in DC and local offices), and exactly how many people said what about each of those topics.
They’re also sorted by zip code and area code.
She said that
Republican callers generally outnumber Democrat callers 4-1, and when it’s a particular issue that single-issue-voters pay attention to (like gun control, or planned parenthood funding, etc…), it’s often closer to 11-1, and that’s recently pushed Republican congressmen on the fence to vote with the Republicans. In the last 8 years, Republicans have called, and Democrats haven’t.
So, when you call:
A) When calling the DC office,
ask for the Staff member in charge of whatever you’re calling about
(“Hi, I’d like to speak with the staffer in charge of Healthcare, please”) — local offices won’t always have specific ones, but they might. If you get transferred to that person, awesome. If you don’t, that’s ok — ask for that person’s name, and then just keep talking to whoever answered the phone. Don’t leave a message (unless the office doesn’t pick up at all — then you can — but it’s better to talk to the staffer who first answered than leave a message for the specific staffer in charge of your topic).
Give them your zip code.
They won’t always ask for it, but make sure you give it to them, so they can mark it down. Extra points if you live in a zip code that traditionally votes for them, since they’ll want to make sure they get/keep your vote.
C) If you can make it personal, make it personal.
“I voted for you in the last election and I’m worried/happy/whatever” or “I’m a teacher, and I am appalled by ——-,” or “as a single mother” or “as a white, middle class woman,” or whatever.
D) Pick 1-2 specific things per day to focus on.
Don’t rattle off everything you’re concerned about — they’re figuring out what 1-2 topics to mark you down for on their lists. So, focus on 1-2 per day. Ideally something that will be voted on/taken up in the next few days, but it doesn’t really matter — even if there’s not a vote coming up in the next week, call anyway. It’s important that they just keep getting calls.
E) Be clear on what you want — “I’m disappointed that the Senator…” or “I want to thank the Senator for their vote on… ” or “I want the Senator to know that voting in _____ way is the wrong decision for our state because… ” Don’t leave any ambiguity.
F) They may get to know your voice/get sick of you — it doesn’t matter.
The people answering the phones generally turn over every 6 weeks anyway, so even if they’re really sick of you, they’ll be gone in 6 weeks.
From experience since the election: If you hate being on the phone & feel awkward (which is a lot of people) don’t worry about it — there are a bunch of scripts (Indivisible has some, there are lots of others floating around these day). After a few days of calling, it starts to feel a lot more natural.
https://indivisiblesf.org/call-scripts/2025/2/4/senators-vote-no-on-all-trump-nominees
FIND YOUR SENATOR
https://www.congress.gov/members/find-your-member
ENTER YOUR ZIP CODE – THERE IT IS
5 Calls app
It is free and it helps make calling easy.
You could always save the numbers on your contact for easy dialing.
The Billionaire Plan to End America
The richest men in the country are in the final stages of a 40-year plan to kill America and crown themselves kings. It’s not a conspiracy anymore: they’re bragging about it. And they’re convinced they’ve got you too distracted to care.
https://billionaireconspiracy.com/
@RalphNader
Trump is nullifying the freedoms and protections of the American Revolution and rejecting the Declaration of Independence. He is defiantly violating the U.S. Constitution, its controls over dictatorial government, and its powers exclusively given to Congress. The Constitution demands that we live under the rule of law, not the rule of one man. -R
BREAKING—RFK Jr has been confirmed as Trump’s HHS Secretary by 52-48. The only GOP senator to vote “No” with Democrats was Mitch McConnell—who survived polio as a child, and is a strong advocate for vaccinations. Now, founder of the largest anti-vax disinfo group is HHS Secretary.
“Individuals, parents, and families have a right to … demand the best possible scientific guidance … But a record of trafficking in dangerous conspiracy theories and eroding trust in public health institutions does not entitle Mr. Kennedy to lead” these efforts.
~ Mitch McConnell
Infant deaths continue to rise as more abortion bans are put in place, studies find
https://www.salon.com/2025/02/13/infant-continue-to-rise-as-more-abortion-bans-are-put-in-place-studies-find/
BREAKING: Senator Susan Collins announces she will support Kash Patel for FBI director, citing his promises to not investigate political opponents of Donald Trump
Former Homeland Security Chair and longtime Intel Committee member @SenatorCollins
says she’ll vote to confirm a guy who took sketchy payments from both Russia and China.
Well, we know who to blame for the damage Kash does.
Republicans are marking up their budget to make deep cuts to Medicaid and SNAP — all while promising to enact the Trump Tax Scam 2.0.
Don’t let them do it behind closed doors.
https://www.c-span.org/event/house-committee/house-budget-committee-holds-markup-hearing/430937
YOU SHOULD MAKE DAILY CALLS:
2 each (DC office and your local office) to your 2 Senators & your 1 Representative. Tell them what you think.
https://www.congress.gov/members/find-your-member
Citizens for Ethics @CREWcrew
Donald Trump fired the director of the Office of Government Ethics and tried to fire the Office of Special Counsel in under 24 hours—two offices that ensure the administration is complying with the law and ethics rules.
Clearly, he wants to run a lawless administration.
Remember that time Musk unveiled his Tesla Cybertruck which was supposed to be indestructible?
Turns out it gets stuck in mud, snow and rolls over…
Trump wants The U.S. government may “award” Musk a $400M State Contract of taxpayers funds for an “armored” EV. Seriously, WTAF
TESLA ARMORED VEHICLE
According to the procurement forecast document updated in Q4 last year, it’s currently in the planning phase under an IDIQ contract. $400M was awarded for the effort.
Sawyer Hackett@SawyerHackett
Wow. Looks like Elon Musk is on-track to win a $400,000,000 State Department contract for “Armored Tesla” in 2025.
The contract is from the “Office of Small and Disadvantaged Utilization.”
DROP SITE: “State Dept procurement forecast lists Tesla as the recipient of the largest expected contract, with Marco Rubio’s department planning to buy $400,000,000 worth of “Armored Tesla” — modified December 13, 2024, a month after Trump’s election.”
Swamp Alert: The State Dept, under Secretary of State Little Marco (
@marcorubio), is set to hand @elonmusk a $400M contract for “Armored Tesla” vehicles.
The deal—modified after Trump’s election—locks in cash for 5 years. Musk is both
@Tesla’s CEO and a gov’t insider. That explains all those meetings that Musk had with Putin. This madman needs to be charged with treason.
Cause you know, the military is short on overpriced, doorstop-shaped, rolling death traps.
Because if there’s one thing the troops need, it’s a vehicle that shatters its own windows and stalls in the rain.
PENNSYLVANIA PLEASE CALL YOUR CONGRESS PEOPLE EVERY DAY
Senator John Fetterman, Washington, DC 20510
(202) 224-4254
Senator David McCormick, Washington, DC 20510
(202) 224-6324
Representative Mary Gay Scanlon, Washington, DC 20510
(202) 225-2011