WWY – Questions & Answers

The “We’re Watching You” project is now operational within Townhall. We wanted to shake out the bugs before a sympathetic audience before going out to the general public. Bloggers and those leaving comments have asked a number of questions that deserve answers. Here are the questions raised so far:

Things are tough, what if I can’t afford to contribute cash?

Don’t let that stop you, we still need your support. There are no charges involved in sending the letters, except for stamps. This is another opportunity to gather together with other like-minded conservatives and make our voices heard – and it won’t cost you a dime to e-mail the letters.

I’m busy, how long does it take to send ten e-mails or print and mail ten letters?

Based on actual timings, one can send nine e-mails (one, Representative Kilroy, doesn’t provide an e-mail address) and print hers for postal mailing in no more than 15 minutes – not counting actually mailing her letter. That includes downloading all ten, inserting a name and address into each one and saving the letter. Then e-mailing one-at-a-time, cutting and pasting the letter into the body of the e-mail. Using USPS to mail the letters may take an additional 5 or 10 minutes to address and stamp all ten envelopes. Isn’t that a worthwhile tradeoff? Fifteen to thirty minutes to take an action that could help to prevent Pelosicare, cap and trade, etc.?

NOTE: Ideally, we’d intended to be able to automatically send ten e-mails with a single button depression on the WWY website, but the GoDaddy software won’t support that automation. If anyone can volunteer to assist with automating that operation, we would be forever grateful. If you’ve got technical abilities that could help or some other software that could be fed from GoDaddy, please let Bobbie know.

There are other House members that deserve to be replaced, why isn’t [named rep] included?

We fully recognize that many other representatives deserve to be replaced – including many Republicans. This project is beginning with a small first step - a manageable number. Imagine how daunting a list of 80 or 100 would be? For one thing, we’d still be accumulating information in preparation for initial publishing. By targeting the ten most vulnerable, we can proceed quickly in a controlled manner to have an impact. We already have the necessary information on another 35 or 40 to add additional groups as we begin to make inroads. There will be more.

Why are these targeted ten only Democrats, certainly there are Republicans that should be removed?

We agree. However, the thrust of this project is to reduce the Democrat majority in the House. Perhaps we can help to regain control of the House on November 2, 2010. Replacing a Republican doesn’t reduce Pelosi’s majority, and she can still ram legislation down our throats. We can concentrate on improving the Republican members after we regain control of the House from the Democrats.

If the letter isn’t from a representative’s constituent, won’t they just discard it and ignore any comment?

We are anticipating that they will do just that. However, when the number of letters becomes noticeable (maybe 50, 100, or more), the staff opening the letters will have seen the WWY coordinated letters and will be aware of the number of out-of-district respondents that are threatening to support the representative’s opponent. That’s all we’re after, to plant a seed that we believe will grow into influence.

After recognizing that WWY members are e-mailing the same (or similar edited) letters, wouldn’t staff try to block the letters as “spam”?

This is another advantage of sending the e-mails one-by-one instead of via an automated mechanism. They are sent from the sender’s e-mail address, all of which are different. If they were sent from a single address (as would probably be the case in an automated system), that address would be susceptible to blocking.

Can I change the letter(s)? I’d like to add a few well chosen comments.

Of course, you can edit it after saving it to your computer and before printing it or sending it out. We ask that you remember that any profanity or inappropriate comments would reflect badly on the entire WWY project and therefore ask that you keep it clean, concise, and relevant.

Exactly how much influence can our letters be expected to have on a sitting member of the U.S. House?

Letters from non-constituents ordinarily wouldn’t carry much (if any) weight with a representative. But, as noted before, numbers can make the difference. If our WWY letters show up daily, perhaps several a day, doesn’t it follow that notice will be taken? And remember that our letters are threatening to support the rep’s opponent. I know that I’d notice and tell the rep, wouldn’t you?