We are a community of writers. And our greatest talents are our writing skills: we know the arguments and we know how to frame them. But here and elsewhere online we are preaching to the choir with diary after diary and comment after comment.
Please know this: Everyone here agrees with you already. Instead of making your case in a dkos diary, write a letter to the editor of your local newspapers. Get it out in the public forum. These letters reach thousands of readers every single day.
I do this constantly. It's easy and it's gratifying to see my opinion in print. My letters see the light of day on a weekly basis in several local papers.
And this summer I have organized a local letter writing campaign in New Jersey and I'm hoping to do one in eastern Pennsylvania to support Barack Obama. It's a cheap way to impact public opinion. Here's how it's done:
- You don't even need to read the papers you send letters to. Most papers will definitely publish anything relevant to the Presidential election at this time of year.
- Simply get their "letters to the editor" email address online. Most papers post all letters to the editor on their web sites under the opinion section.
- Then write a good letter. Because it might get published.
- Keep the letter around 150-250 words. The less space you use the easier it will be to fit on the page - editors like.
- Send the letter to at least 2 newspapers.
- Only send the letters to papers whose circulation range you are in. It's about the papers showing local opinions.
So this is just one more way you can help affect the media narrative for Obama. We can explain his plans and defend him against attacks. We are sharp, persuasive writers so we can really have an impact.
Please consider helping out Obama by writing a letter to your local papers!
I feel this is so relevant that I'm going to continue to post this diary until it gets recommended. So please recommend it. (Or tell me why I'm stupid)
And here's some samples for the road:
The most stunning part of the Republican convention was how on the final night, John McCain asserted his desire to change Washington. Unfortunately for John McCain, his party has controlled the White House for the past eight years along with both houses of Congress for eight of the past ten years. This means that McCain is either rejecting the policies and politics of his own party or he is confused about who has been setting the agenda recently. Most likely, however, McCain is just trying to be something he isn't in order to get elected, which means he'll just just deliver more of the same non sense that George W Bush has. I look forward to rejecting a third term for George W. Bush.
Barack Obama's acceptance speech tonight has revitalized the American dream and re inspired our American ideals. Simply said, we can do better than the past eight years. And while it's also true that we can't do worse, we can't take our chances on another tired Republican with no new ideas. Barack Obama is the tough, visionary, inspiring leader that we need at this moment to lead our stalled economy and our failing foreign policy out of the Bush era.
John McCain turned 72 years old this week. This means that he would end his first term as a 76 year old man. Would you be concerned if your school district hired 76 year old teachers? If your airline began hiring 76 year old pilots. Maybe. Maybe not. But a 76 year old President of the United States? Much less a 76 year old President who has almost no expertise in anything except military affairs. And based on his still unexplained decision to authorize an unnecessary, preemptive war in the heart of the Middle East while ignoring Afghanistan, I can't even consider him much of an expert on the military either. I see no reason to elect a 76 year old man with questionable judgment to a position that requires more foresight and more energy than any other job in the world.
I would like to respond to the numerous recent letters advocating for off shore oil drilling. Today's energy crisis is not shaping up to be a passing threat, but rather a permanent reality that our society must solve in order to sustain itself. Drilling for oil, at best, seems to offer little more than to appease us for a few years or maybe a decade. It is the classic duct tape and bubble gum solution. Worse, it is a step backwards because it will encourage demand while discouraging the development of renewable energy. It simply pushes the problem back a few years, onto the shoulders of the next generation. That's certainly not a solution and it's definitely nothing be proud of.
Leaving aside nuclear energy, which has become a political and ethical mess, there is just one true solution to our energy crisis: the research, development, and mass production of technology that can capture the infinitely renewable energy produced by the sun, the wind and the oceans. While drilling for oil domestically may complement these efforts in the short term, we should not pretend it will provide anything more. Renewable energy on a massive scale must happen - there are no short cuts. So let's get to work.