imported post
Squeak wrote:
I've contacted the national gun forum and got some push from them.:celebrate
Which one would that be, please?
From some other forum...
As you pointed out, the key to success in politics is actually doing
something - not just talking about it.
And, as you learned in the LTS, mobilization of the membership is the key to
getting things done.
Unfortunately, the reality of the situation is that we can only mobilize
people on a limited number of occasions each legislative session. I wish it
was different. But, it is not.
In the past, we have tried to mobilize the membership on multiple issues
simultaneously. What we found is that the membership could not be bothered
with supporting multiple issues simultaneously.
When legislators see GrassRoots leadership attempt to mobilize the
membership and then fail to do so, the legislators see that as a sign the
issue is not important and that the legislators can ignore or oppose it.
Failure to mobilize when trying to do so is a sign of weakness.
I was so disappointed in the lack of support for multiple issues that I
considered quitting. But, I finally realized I should be thankful for
getting support for one issue at a time rather than complaining about lack
of support for multiple issues.
Then, I realized that if GrassRoots leadership is able to successfully
mobilize people on one issue at a time, we can demonstrate to the
politicians that we are able to mobilize people if we need to do so. The
threat of mobilizing people can be effective when there is a history of
actually being able to mobilize people. But, if our history is one of only
sometimes being able to mobilize people, then we appear to be less of a
threat to the politicians.
So, while you think we are being weak for failing to try to mobilize members
on multiple issues simultaneously, the fact of the matter is that we are
forced to pick our battles carefully and use the threat of mobilization on
the other battles. If we tried to mobilize members and failed to do so,
then we would actually be doing harm to the prospects of getting the issue
passed that we were unable to mobilize the members for.
When the House actually holds a hearing on H. 3994, GrassRoots leadership
will be there. But, GrassRoots does not set the House's agenda, the House
leadership does.
But, this session we were on continuous standby to go into action on S.
593. We were not willing to jeopardize S. 593 by mobilizing members on
another issue and then not be able to mobilize them on S. 593 if needed.
One of the toughest parts of being an activist is coming to realize that
most people do not care about the issue that you support. Even your
supporters usually do not support things as strongly as you do, which is why
you are known as "activist." If everyone supported your issue as strongly
as you do, then there would be no need for you to be an "activist."
So, of all the issues that GrassRoots supports, which issue do you think we
should mobilize the troops for?