My representative voted against the health bill, even though he's supposely a liberal guy. I wrote and told him I would never vote for him again. Anything else I should do?

Tweet it. Just get the word out to others who live in your district.

Run for office! If not that, start getting involved in local politics NOW!

I guess I’m an old-fashioned girl – write a letter to your local newspaper? (If there is still one.!)

Just put it on my twitter page. I don’t want to run for office, but we need to find someone who will run against him (this is Brain Baird—Olympia, WA—who I hope will be out of office soon.)

In your letter, did you tell him you will be spreading the word to people not to vote for him?

Dog turd through his letterbox?

What you should do is consider that ‘suppososedly liberal’ isn’t the same thing as radical.

Campaign for his opponent in the next election.

Yes! No matter what his opponent stands for.

@proXXi I don’t think of that watered down bill as “radical.” Radical might be everyone gets health care for free paid for by the government—although that still makes sense to me. So, radical might be all rich people begin paying 90% of their income to equalize the country—and we begin to build up our middle class and stop the small number of rich people getting richer and richer on the backs of the people who have lost everything. That makes sense too, but it might be deemed radical by some.

Convince your friends and family (assuming they are like-minded and live in the same district) to do the same.

Also, the next time there’s an important vote (for example, the Senate’s version coming up “soon”), contact your elected representative to express your wishes before the vote, not after.

he probably won’t care anyway.
a politicians loyalites, especially in the US, don’t lie with the voters, but with his financiers, e.g. corporations. voters are only there to put him into office.

Call his office and harangue his staff. Sign up with the ACLU (they always have some worthwhile petitions going) from which you can get his e-mail address. Then send him an e-mail every time he sneezes. They always write you back, so you can get their phone numbers that way, or you can just look them up.

Tell them you are donating money to his opponent just as soon as Fire Dog Lake sends you his name. In fact, sign up with Fire Dog Lake and find your strength in numbers. They will also keep you informed of things that are coming up for a vote.

@mritty: I’ve been writing letters continually—I seem to be on a site that sends something to me daily about contacting my representatives.

If he is a Republican, vote for the Democrat, Of course if he is a Republican and you voted for him last year, what did you expect?

If he is a Democrat, work for his opponent in the primary, contribute to his opponent. Heck, if he is a Democrat, pm me his name and I’ll contribute to his opponent. Then write to Nancy Pelosi and tell her if she can’t get her people on track, galileogirl won’t be voting for her.

@skfinkel It occurs to me, after reading more about the bill, that your representative may have had reason to vote against it. Do you know about the abortion funding amendment that was added to it? Is it possible that that’s why he voted against it? I’m not sure what I would have done, but it certainly is a strong negative factor. You might want to find out his reasoning before dismissing his actions totally.

Gotta love one issue voters….

@proXXi It’s not about being a one issue voter, it’s about politicians putting themselves ahead of the mandate of their constituencies. The represntative has the right to stand for what he believes is their best interests but not the best interests of his party nor the best interests of his campaign fund. There is a risk of standing up for your principles, for a politician it may be losing an election. The bigger risk is putting your party or your own interests ahead of the voters when you must lose your position.

The only principle being stood up for here is the right to collect campaign contributions from big money donors. Back when the Republicans were in charge, Democrats could be quietly on the take because they could always hide behind the the Republican majorities. Now that cover is gone, and they’ve “got to dance with thems that brung them.” We need to send them a message that we won’t tolerate Republicans who call themselves Democrats.