They NEED to hear this, too. Their staffers need to hear this. Their staffers need to have this kind of input presented directly into their ears and in their faces - stuff they'll sit and talk about, bewildered, at the lunch counter, or after hours over a couple of beers with friends, or - heaven forbid, reluctantly presented to their boss the Congressperson when asked what the calls are like and "how many are with us on killing Obamacare?" We KNOW that's gonna happen. We KNOW that if there's enough of this kind of input force-fed to the other side, it won't be easy to ignore anymore. Especially input as vivid and emotionally gripping as yours - where you actually, sincerely, get choked up!
I suspect some of these volunteers answering the phones may not yet have hearts completely made of stone. They're certainly on the young side. Probably mostly single. Maybe some of 'em are from some vile chapter of the vile "College republi-CONS" that spawned vile filth like kkkarl rove. BUT... they can't ALL be. Just statistics And I submit that some of them just might possibly be touched. Not ALL of 'em are unsalvageable or unreachable. All we need is to start the drum beating. Start one or two of 'em talking over coffee one afternoon or over beer some night. You KNOW this happens. They get together and gossip, share stories from that day, the lunatic who raged at them on the phone about aliens landing in Topeka. The pretty flowers that some constituent sent in. How many people are calling to complain about the same thus-n-such. They talk. People talk. They just do! Nancy Reagan once warned Donald Regan about that - "people are talking!" - shortly before he got the axe from ronnie's White House inner circle.
I personally had a small taste of that one time. Seriously. The typical snarky assholishness in me got me to referring to a certain female African-American Sovietologist who played a role the size of a "Mushroom CLOUD" in the decade just past as Contradicta. It just sounded good and was funny and became a habit. Well, I call in to that TOLL FREE Capitol Hill switchboard every so often and MANY of us here and outside DU were performing various kinds of activism like that while we were trying to stop and then trying to end the Iraq War. I called some Congressperson's office (it was a Dem) and in the process of saying my piece I complained about Contradicta. The staffer taking my call stopped and snickered at that before things continued and I finished the call. A day or two later, I called another Congressperson's office (I think it was another Dem) and complained about Contradicta again, and the kid who answered laughed out loud and said "Contradicta! I LOVE that! That's so great!!!" I said "oh yeah?" He: "yeah, somebody called that in the other day." Me: "yeah? Well, that's mine. I called that in! I came up with 'Contradicta'." And he replied "Oh yeah! It's really GREAT! It's all over the Hill now!"
People talk.
Anywaaaaaayyyyyyyy - my point was that if something like this genuinely sincerely choked-up constituent calls in, so damn moved by what the dreaded Obamacare has done to save their money and/or their lives that they're almost literally in tears - you think the person hearing that on the other end of the phone won't be moved - and won't say something about it? And I believe they're NOT all that hard-hearted on the other side, at least the young interns and pages and volunteers in the office staffing the phones and doing other such scut-work. Some of 'em? Yeah. Lost souls for sure. But NOT EVERYBODY!!!
AND ALSO! Make sure the Congresspeople on OUR side of the aisle hear this too. The better to stiffen their damn flabby SPINES!!! That personal, emotional, human being-to-human being thing. That thing that touches the heart.
Call that in, rurallib!!! Call your Congress critter. Call SOMEBODY ELSE'S Congress critter, too!!! This is the kind of thing that DESPERATELY needs to be heard and spread!!! As far and wide as possible. It could just be enough to push back just enough against all that koch money. It could turn a few heads. It could touch a few hearts. It could change a few minds! And it could stiffen a few of the timids' resolve!
Handy updated TOLL FREE Capitol Hill switchboard numbers located in my sig line below, for your convenience! (Member FDIC!)
Aww, crap, sorry this is so long...
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