The Tragedy of Political Advocacy

The Tragedy of Political Advocacy:

 If you are one of the 135 million people [1] who have contacted Congress by letter, phone call, or online petition in the last few years, you've probably asked yourself: "Did that matter?"

Despite how good your civic action may have made you feel, the overwhelming odds are that your deed was essentially pointless - and, surprisingly, Congress is not to blame.

No matter who wins at the ballot box in the next seven days, we all lose for the next few years if we don't start solving this Tragedy of Advocacy.

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Lobbying Congress in the United States is a $3.5 billion dollar industry annually [2], with an additional $1.1 billion spent on issue advertising [3]. While large, those billions don't even include the budgets of the myriad nonprofits, vendors and other groups whose mission it is to drive citizen advocacy toward Congress. At the end of the day, it's impossible to know exactly how big, but added together, the industry is massive, and one of the biggest tools of the advocacy industry is mobilizing the grassroots - or asking people like you and me to "make our voices heard" by telling our representatives how to think or vote on an issue like health care or climate legislation.

Many of these advocacy groups have become incredibly savvy at enticing us to "share" or "act" with Congress online, employing professional staff that do nothing but try to get us involved. I know because I've been one of them for years.

http://www.filmsforaction.org/articles/the-tragedy-of-political-advocacy/