Cutting Through the Noise
Jonathan Cohn on how to be heard
Continuing last week’s look at Activist Afternoons, we asked Jonathan Cohn, policy director of Progressive Massachusetts, for his perspective on how Sunday Activist Afternoon volunteers can “work the phones.”
By Jonathan Cohn
Policy Director, Progressive Massachusetts
Let me tell you a secret about your state legislature (and I’m certain it’s true of any). Your legislators don’t hear from constituents all that often. Yes, they’ll get calls about constituent services requests, and if you live in especially active districts, their inboxes may get flooded some days. But most legislators do not hear about policy from their constituents on a regular basis.
If we want better and bolder policy, we need to change that. And that’s one of many reasons we’ve been hosting phone banks at the relaunched Activist Afternoons in Cambridge on the first and third Sundays of the month.
We have been calling constituents in key legislative districts to ask them to call their legislators about important issues (and we can patch them through to an office immediately if they’re interested!) This year, we have been making calls about the Real Estate Transfer Fee, a proposal to enable cities and towns to levy a small fee on high-end real estate transactions in order to raise much-needed revenue for affordable housing. We are also backing the Gas Moratorium bill, which would put a pause on gas infrastructure expansion so that we aren’t entrenching unsustainable fossil fuels.
Odds are, you get too many emails with different action alerts (and too many fundraising emails), so it’s easy for things to get lost in the mix. That’s why these calls help. Many times, the voters we call are aware of the issues and eager to take action. But sometimes they aren’t aware but happy to learn of how they can make a difference. And too many people assume that their legislators are doing good work off in the distance when, in fact, they need to hear from constituents regularly. Calls from constituents urge them to pay attention to things they may have overlooked and give them positive reinforcement when they are doing good work. Phone bankers cut through the noise and make taking action easier for the people they call.
What is also exciting about these phone banks is that every time we train a new phone banker, or build the skill and comfort level of a returning phone banker, we are helping future campaigns, especially critical ones in the fall. Since we are calling a favorable list (our own list from Progressive Mass), people can have their first phone banking experiences with friendly voters, get used to the rhythm of phone banking, and relieve initial fears about talking to people they don’t know.
With Activist Afternoons, we also recognize that activism is always more fun when it’s social. We get to share our experiences on calls—celebrating wins, laughing at bizarre calls or answering machines, and enjoying each other’s company. And with our every-other Sunday regularity, people know that they can drop in when their schedule frees up. We’ll be there waiting --- you just need to come with a good attitude, a phone, and a laptop.
Jonathan writes regular email updates for ProgressiveMass.
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Very inspiring!!