As I finished my most recent article with a grand declaration, I find myself wanting to act, however small of a step it may be. After all, taking action now is always preferable to waiting for an arbitrary date. Thus, I’m going to reach out to current members of the House of Representatives to see if they would be willing to share any of their hard-earned wisdom with me regarding how to best prepare for an eventual run at the Capitol. See, I paid attention to my career counselors when I was in college!
I pulled up a list of all 435 Representatives in the House, ranked by age. I scrolled to the bottom of the list. I’ve decided to reach out to younger representatives because I want to survey those who had the most relevant experience to my circumstance. After all, not too long ago it was them who had little-to-no political experience. I say this not to age discriminate, but for practicality reasons; this is because advice that AOC or Matt Gaetz might have for starting a political career would be much more relevant to today’s climate than what the octogenarians might have to say. Thus, I drew a rough line at representatives below the age of forty.
However, this line isn’t a hard one either. Gaetz is slightly older than forty, as is my local representative, and I plan to reach out to both of them as well. Despite my Libertarian leanings, I plan on reaching out to both major parties, as I wrote my letter in a neutral tone and apolitically (the bot would be so proud!). It would be interesting to see if there is a difference in response rate among party lines, thus I’ll need to ensure to reach out to an equal number of Democrats and Republicans in order to not skew the data. Additionally, I plan on reaching out to other, non-Representatives with relevant experience as well; I’ll write to the Old Guard of the Porcupines, namely Ron Paul and Gary Johnson (whom I voted for in 2016), since they’ll have the most pertinent advice for newer Libertarians.
I spent last night typing up a boiler plate letter in which I outline why I’m writing to them in the first sentence, my questions, and ending with a bit of context about myself. The questions need to be standardized so that I can compare the results between responses fairly. My personal background also will not be changing much, though I’ll tailor it slightly to each representative; bringing up my time spent in Big Pharma is unlikely to endear me to far-left candidates, nor will mentioning my COVID vaccine production days win me any Republican Brownie Points. I’ll also tailor some of my questions slightly to the recipient of my letter, such as how relevant has your law degree/community volunteering/time spent on Wall Street been on Capitol Hill?
However, I’m not naïve enough to expect a high response rate. After all, I’ve never donated to their campaigns and yes, pitchfork wielder, I’m keenly aware that this is an election year and that they’re busy. With that said, I won’t judge the representatives for not writing back immediately, writing me back after the election is fine. After all, I’m not in a rush. Admittedly, part of this idea is also inspired by the YouTuber Mr.Beat (not to be confused with Mr.Beast) as he reached out to all 500+ members of Congress. I won’t be going to that extreme, and my letters will not be asking them to take a particular action other than sparing some wisdom. I hope that my mild flattery will garner me a slightly higher response rate than the edutainment channel, though I won’t hold my breath.
Don’t be afraid to shake the tree, you never know what might fall out…
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