Ohio Students Vote
November 7, 2012
Students at Kenyon College, in Gambier, Ohio, were there at 6:30am to vote–one on crutches.
500 students voted, beyond those who voted early, probably 800 in all.
But voting is just the beginning. The national results are exciting–but we’re left with a failed school levy, and a congress person who supports fracking. Voting is just the first step of democracy, not the last.
Post-election, how can we make our representatives do their job?
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Ultraphyte 
Yay! You guys rock!
As for getting them to do their jobs, the best thing to do is to stay active: call, write, talk to them. However compromised people think their politicians are, ultimately most of them got into politics because they enjoy solving problems for other people. Being one of the people they can solve problems for is a win-win for both of you. Even if your Pols aren’t part of your party, at least attempt to educate them and their staff. It can’t hurt, especially if you can get them away from doctrinaire thinking and thinking about how they can help their districts.
I don’t know if this is the same in the USA as in the UK, but if you want to protest something, write to them or e-mail them. Here, they have to make a written (includes e-mail) reply to every letter they get.
It’s the same way here. They will almost always respond, but I don’t think they have to on all issues. The only thing I’d add is that the primary rule is to be polite. Always. Even if they’re scum-sucking, and stupidly evil in your opinion. They’re better than you are at enduring being yelled at, but that won’t help your cause. A lesser rule is that, if you have a solution that they can make happen, they like that as well.
Yes, write your Rep, and get your friends and colleagues to also write. Then do the follow-up. If they write back, acknowledge it appropriately based on their response, i.e. thank you for telling me you received my letter/email (form-letter response), but this doesn’t tell me what you intend to do about X. Then follow-up again with a re-write/paraphrase of your first letter along with what has happened in the interim re: your cause/concern (worsened, gotten more complex, affected more people, etc.) Politicians and their staff are good at playing the wait-you-out game – so don’t give up if the matter is important to you.
We’ll try. I’m encouraging students to make local politics a daily habit, like brushing your teeth. Maybe that’s a bad example…