2. Know Your Congressperson

You’ll want to know how your congressperson feels about the issues before you call and write them so that you can better know what to ask of them specifically. For example, if your congressperson supports the war, it’d probably be best to start out by asking them to bring the troops home and stop funding the war. If they have been voting against funding the war, you can perhaps ask them to take up a leadership role against the war by urging their colleagues to stop voting for more funding for the war. Everyone is in a different place, and either way, you’ll want to ask them for all 3 things: stop the war; restore the bill of rights; and impeach Cheney, then Bush.

    To find out more about your congressperson may be a bit more difficult than you’d expect, since it’s most often important to read the legislation that they vote for or against, but a good place to start would be here, where you can type in your congressperson’s last name or your 9-digit zip code on the top left-hand side, and then access their voting records or more information. You can also probably find out where they stand on their own respective website, which you can access via The House Website or The Senate Website. Although research will help you understand better the congressperson you’re dealing with, realize that you don’t need to know everything about them (though some of the specifics help) – just get a feel for where they stand. The most important thing is to ask for the 3 requests (and their specific sub-requests).