Rattling the Political Chain of Command

We’ve pretty much all heard, and some of us have even followed through, about contacting our senators and Congress-critters if we want something done about a specific problem—or just wish to sway the hearts and minds of those involved in the legislative process.

Perhaps you’d even like to join them by assembling a “political aspirations portfolio” of skills and starting at the bottom—the school board.

Rather than picking up the phone, fax, or signing onto the web, there’s a more efficient way. This knowledge is necessary, because it affects who sees or hears the problem, and how it gets handled from there. Lots of times, a direct leap from home ground to the top of the food chain does no good, and I wish people like Lou Dobbs and others would recognize it and instruct us correctly on how to EFFECTIVELY register a complaint or bring an issue to light.

I’d like to give a big thanks to Neal Boortz, who brought this to my attention in his most recent book Somebody’s Gotta Say It—while being far from Lou Dobbs in political views and social issues, he wizened us all on the correct way to enlighten our politicians without jumping links in the chain of command.

In government, chain of command is important. Without it, there’d be complete chaos. Link-jumpers cause chaos and only serve to slow down progress and sidetrack our poor elected human beings from their original mission.

Just like in the navy, if a particular issue or situation comes up that could affect morale, safety, or the well-being of the ship (and/or crew) as a whole, a “chit” (official form of notice) is filled out and given to the supervisor, who in turn gives it HIS supervisor, and on up the chain it goes until someone with official capacity for dealing with the problem or situation notifies the originator of the chit. A person-to-person meeting is held, either between the originator and the highest supervisor reached in the chain (sometimes the commander himself), or the originator and all parties who signed off on the chit while it was climbing the chain. This way, there isn’t just one person, too busy or distracted, to take in the information then promptly forget it—there is a human trail AND a paper trail.

Neal Boortz tells us that the most effective complaint registration, or simply informing your elected officials about how you feel on certain issues, is to start at the bottom—the way the legislative branch is designed to work. This is the order in which it goes:

Step 1: Write down your issue or complaint so it makes sense, and is easily read by the elected official. Think of it as a resume’—the more brief and concise, the less likely it is to end up in the trash can. Leave out emotional rhetoric, and stick to the facts. Elected officials don’t have time for histrionics, and certainly don’t have time to weed out the actual issue from the inflammatory bluster.

Step 2: Start at the bottom—your LOCAL branches of government. This is because the political system was designed to start locally electing representatives, who in turn VOTE FOR YOU up the chain of political command. This is why link-jumping doesn’t work most of the time.

Step 3: Get enough of your friends, family, and whoever else shares your views/opinions/concerns to join you in the LOCAL writing campaign—this will surely get the attention of your local politicians, who forward things upward, and can help sway a vote or generate legislation.

Step 4: Lather, rinse, repeat. DO NOT MESS WITH FEDERAL CONGRESS-CRITTERS DIRECTLY.

Our system was supposed to run largely from an assembly of local voices—government BY and FOR the people. Money and special interest groups have taken over, and we need to take it back. Using it correctly, we can begin making ourselves heard once again, and this is done only by following the chain of command—local representatives, who have the ear of state representatives, and in turn have the ear of Congress and the White House. Getting more people (through proper channels) on board with your concerns only increases the likelihood that something will get done about them—think “snowball effect.” Keeping your local representatives updated on any changes in facts or the situation itself only serves to bolster support and keeps your political chain of command informed for a more satisfactory outcome.

Our federal level of representation was never meant to have contact with the voters directly, and all these haphazard “write your Congressman” campaigns only serve to gum up the legislative works. The voters elect state and local representatives, and the Electoral College elects the president, regardless of who is on your voting ballot. To sway the federal tier, the House and Senate rely on contact from state and local officials—not the individual voter himself. Mere complaints (especially those that could’ve been handled at lower levels) almost assuredly get tossed, while issues raised from proper channels will get a quick glance at worst, and 100% personal involvement at best.

We all want personal involvement from our federal-level officials, don’t we? It’s time we all learned how to best capture and hold their attention…through PROPER channels. Start making your own human trails and paper trails for that snowball effect—remember, the bigger the snowball, the better the results will be for you.

Nobody ever said politics was easy. Correct political etiquette is even harder.