The President Does Not Want To Hear It.

The BBQ Pit
41

Look, very few people are more critical of this asshole of a President than i am, but i’m not sure that this is a really big deal. You can still write a letter to the President the same way that you always could, by chucking an envelope in a mail box.

And the email form isn’t that hard to get through.

I do have a couple of problems, however, that i think Dewey glosses over far too easily.

First, the fact that you have to declare whether your message is supportive of or in opposition to the President. Dewey ascribes this simply to bad website design, but that strikes me as conservative sophistry. Why have that menu at all? Surely the rather comprehensive topic menus allow sufficiently accurate routing of the message, without the need for bundling them into “pro” and “con” right from the very start.

It’s also interesting that they ask you whether you support or oppose the President before they ask what subject you’re writing about. These things don’t happen by accident when people like Karl Rove are running the show, and to suggest that it’s the fault of some website designer is pretty self-serving, IMO.

Secondly, i think that it should be possible to send the President of the United States an anonymous email, just like you can send an anonymous letter. Anyone who’s looked at any correspondence from the public in the National Archives or the Presidential libraries knows that some of the most interesting letters–both pro and con–are anonymous. Even if there is no nefarious motive behind the requirement for putting one’s name and address, i still think it’s unnecessary. If you’re sending an email, all that should be required is a return email address–and perhaps even that isn’t necessary.

42

Dewey, I certainly was never under the delusion that general emails or letters to the White House or Congress reach the hands of anyone important, at least not since the 19th Century. I always figured they either went straight in the trash, or were counted by subject line and then went straight into the trash.

Having spent several years working with folks who lobby Congress without deep pockets, I can assure you that getting yourself heard in the halls of Congress takes a lot more than sending a letter or an email addressed to the President or the congressman or senator. If you have a personal issue, your best bet is to go to your local congressman or senator’s office and ask for their help; they have lots of staffers in their home state offices for just that purpose. If you represent an interest group, you can get an appointment with a staffer; it’s a different ball game, but you’re still going to be very limited in time and attention span. Occasionally lightning strikes and your issue gets taken up, but most of the time you’re tilting at windmills. But that’s our system.

The letters and emails the public sends are used strictly for quick opinion polling. I’ve often called my congressman to give my position on an issue. All I do is say, “I’m calling to register my support for X issue,” and the intern who answers the phone marks off another one on the right tally sheet and the whole thing takes 10 seconds. Which is the same thing that will happen to any mail, snail or e, you send on issues.

If you want a serious answer on an issue of national interest, get the name of the staffer who deals with those issues and either ask for a few minutes of their time or send a letter directly to them. THEN your chances of getting heard will be at least improved.

And how do you get that name? You pick up the phone and call the congressman’s office (which number can easily be found at the Thomas website) and ask the intern who answers, “Who’s the staff who handles X issue? How do you spell their name exactly?” (That’s if it’s not already available on Thomas, which it often is.)

Same thing for the White House. There ARE people to talk to about issues, but the mass fodder email system is not the way to get to them.

43

If citizens in general find the extra trouble discouraging, that should considerably cut down on emails received. That way, the President can say that negative responses to his policies have decreased. And it would be the truth. And we all know how important the “technical” truth is to the Administration.

If we give the President the benefit of the doubt on his possible motivations (to enhance communications), do you really want a secretive Executive Branch to have a list of who is for them and who is against them?

Keep in mind that it was Congress that that just blocked the Administration’s desire to be able to legally read your emails to others.

If this “communications enhancement” were the only thing that Bush has done to get private information on citizens, I would cut a little slack.

It might be interesting if two Dopers with differing opinions on one of the available issues, sent emails to the President. One is supportive of Bush. The other is non-supportive of Bush. Then compare the content of the canned responses.

44

…and that was my whole &%$#@ point.

I KNOW he’s not listening. He’s done everything but hold up a goddamn neon sign for us on national TV saying I DON’T GIVE A SHIT ABOUT ANYONE EXCEPT BIG MONEY AND BIG ENERGY.

I am irritated about the fact that his administration is instituting changes that make it pretty OBVIOUS, though, as well as gathering more information about people emailing him than I am comfortable with. That, and the fact that it’s supposedly an IMPROVEMENT, when all it really does is make it more difficult. All too often in our society, when a business says “For your convenience,” what they really mean is “For OUR convenience, and possibly profit.”

…and I think it’s a hell of a note for the government to behave in this manner. Then again, the President’s acted like a damn CEO ever since he got in there, so I guess this sort of thing is to be expected…

45

This is easily one of the most mindless over-reactions to a piece of beureucratic minutiae I’ve ever seen. Good lord, people. So it takes an extra five minutes to send an e-mail no one is ever going to read in the first place. The horror! The horror! Buncha fuckin’ chicken littles. If this is the level of discourse the White House normally receives via e-mail, I don’t blame the president for not giving a shit.

46

Oh, if only it were true.

47

You are missing the point.

This is a filtering system.

We have already determined from the last election that Democrats cannot figure out how to mark a ballot. Thus, the e-mail form should reduce them to gibbering incoherence, and they will stop bothering the White House.

Based on some of the reactions in this thread, it is working already.

Of course it is a plot. So is fluoridation. And AIDS was developed by the government to kill black people.

Don’t look behind you.

Regards,
Shodan

48

That option is also missing.
As was (from off the top of my head) ANWR, (as mentioned in the article jobs, and unemployment), tax cuts, judicial nominees, many civil rights/civil liberties issues - including the Patriot Acts (gee, there’s a shock for this administration), and who knows what else.

Admittedly, I didn’t think this president listened to anyone in the first place - but now, by selecting “differing opinion” I can be sure that my mail will go straight into the cyber version of a circular file. And he’ll have a record of who’s against him. (It does require at least two letters in the first and last name fields - in the address and city fields. It doesn’t seem to check if the city and zip code fields line up. Also, the email address has to have an “@” a “.” and people without a US address - you can’t write. Sorry. Though I do give them credit for getting the territories and the armed forces addresses in.)

For statistical purposes. That’s funny. I so believe that one.

49

I wonder how I can add something like that to my own e-mail system?

Heck, just think of the time I could save!

50

I wish you dorks would actually understand what you’re talking about.

Every single email will be printed and read by some moron intern. Any that the intern faints over will be relayed to his supervisor who may kick it farther up the line if it’s felt necessary.

But here’s a tip: even though the president won’t read it nothing has changed because for a long time the president hasn’t read ANY of the letters coming to the white house. That’s what staffers are for.

Having a jackleg ability to gauge pro/con is simply a means of automating what those poor interns had been doing by hand.

Is it dorky? Yes. But it’s not really changing anything other than making it more efficient of staff time.

My reasons for believing this:

Conversations with several White House interns over the years (and one this morning over just this issue) and several years covering politics in Washington.

Really, get something real to complain about. I wouldn’t piss on Bush if I saw he was on fire and I’m not getting worked up about this one.

There’s so much else.

51

Used to be you could just walk up the dirt road to the White House and knock, and the President would answer the fucking dor himself! :mad:

52

Jonathan Chance, we do not all share your contacts or your knowledge of the behind-the-scenes workings of the White House. You just explained more than the blasted website did. Had it simply come out and said that, it probably would have deterred the OP from the rant. Maybe not from his suspicions, but the rant.

You got to find out from a White House intern exactly what this was about. We don’t have that luxury. And I think it’s always good that we question our leaders, especially if we don’t understand why they’re doing something. This may be a little thing, but sometimes it’s just one “little thing” too damn many.

53

Well, I certainly wouldn’t deter you from questioning our elected leaders (suck-ass as they are)…not at all.

But I think expecting email and suchlike to actually be read is a little silly. If you wrote to a captain of industry (Michael Eisner, say) he wouldn’t have time to read it either. If there was a trend in the letters someone would bring it to his attention. This simply allows the white house staff (both administration and political) to better track the mood of the people who take the time to write in.

The best way to be head is to answer opinion polls honestly and VOTE. Those trendlines they notice right away, trust me.

54

Well, I’m no fan of the President nor most of his officers but I can see how these changes sound more “sinister” than they are. I doubt few emails are read by the President anyway, and the staffers who do probably waste an uncountable amount of time sifting through lunatics with nothing coherent to say. These changes might actually help weed out some of the crazies. Also, having the category “agree” or “disagree” seems useful if emails are being used to judge public reaction in some way, for statistics and so on. Let’s If the names of people who disagree are being put into a notebook and monitored or something, then of course we’re talking about a whole different angle.

55

“Mindless overreaction.”

Now that hurt.

Seems to me that “mindless” is a term better used to describe the indifference that so many seem to feel about the jolly erosion of our civil rights, basic freedoms, and, yes, petty conveniences since 9/11. I WOULD blame it all on Bush, but I’m pretty sure that he, Cheney, and Ashcroft wouldn’t have had the guts to try half of what they’ve pulled if not for those dipshit terrorists.

If the installation of an email filtering system had taken place during the administration of a President who at least PRETENDED that he represented the American people and gave a tinker’s damn about their well-being and opinions, then I agree: this thread would be a gross overreaction.

Taken as one more brick in a mighty large fraggin’ wall, on the other hand, I don’t think an angry opinion is much of an overreaction at all. I live in a state where the state Congress, under the direction of Tom DeLay, tried to have the freakin’ Democrats arrested in order to force through a redistricting bill to cement a Republican power play, folks. I do not think my fears of the Bush administration’s lust for power is unwarranted in the least.

And for the last time, I do not give a flying fuck in a windstorm full of naked cheerleaders about the White House email system. I do not care about questionnaires, I do not care that the President does not read his own fucking mail, I do not care that he personally would never find out about it if Elvis Presley returned from the dead and began writing him death threats, because the Secret Service handles all that shit.

WHAT IRRITATES ME IS THE CASUAL DISMISSAL OF ONE OF THE METHODS THAT WE, THE PUBLIC, HAVE OF ADDRESSING OUR LEADERSHIP. And I don’t think “dismissal” is too harsh a term. When we’re making it harder to address the President simply to make life easier for all these interns I keep hearing about, then something is WRONG with the damn system, no matter how good or bad their frickin’ web design is.

And if you do not see this, then you deserve whatever the Bush Administration chooses to do to you.

This is a man who became President without a clear mandate from the American people.

This is a man who got us into a war without a clear mandate from the American people.

THIS IS A MAN WHO IS GOING TO DO WHATEVER THE HELL HE WANTS THAT HE THINKS HE CAN GET AWAY WITH, regardless of what the American people want or think or say, folks! And he’s been proving it for his entire first term! And if you disagree with him, you’re “unAmerican!”

And now, the Bush White House has made it even harder for your will to be known.

…and some of you think I’m overreacting.

56

Oh, and Mr. Chance – polls can be made to say whatever the poller wishes them to say. Polls are a joke, unless taken by unbiased pollsters, and from what I’ve seen, the Bush administration has no use for unbiased pollsters, except when they can put a pro-Bush-Agenda spin on honest numbers.

But I can’t argue with you about voting.

57

Well, I’ve designed such polls myself, Wang. No argument there.

But there are two different types of polls. The first, as you mentioned, are those designed for release to the press. Those you skew in your favor.

But the second type are honest ones meant to provide some data for the political end of the administration (or whomever). Those ones are important.

So your thesis is flawed because you haven’t considered that polls have different functions.

58

Dear Mr. President, there are too many states nowadays. Please eliminate three. I am not a crackpot.

:smiley:

59

And you’re worried about his fucking e-mail? Mindless was too mild.

Look, buddy, you want to convince me that the Bush administration is the second coming of the Third Reich, it’s not going to be all that hard: I’m halfway there with you already. But you’ll have to come up with something a little more damning than a poorly designed website. Because what you got here is pathetic. Vince Foster conspiracy pathetic. You can still e-mail the president, it just takes a few minutes longer. And the outcome of your email hasn’t changed one whit: the president is still never going to see nor care about your email, just like all the presidents before him back to the foundation of this country. Or at least, back to the installation of the first modem in the White House.

There’s only one way to make your voice heard in Washington, and that’s to vote. Whinging away at petty bullshit like this just makes you look paranoid and naive, which is going to ultimatly make it harder for anyone who shares your views on Bush to be taken seriously, thus making it harder to oppose him when he does something genuinely dangerous.

So knock it the fuck off.

60

'nother strident non-fan of Mr. Bush checking in to wonder what in the hell folks are all pissed off about.

One wouldn’t (IMHO) need to have personal experience/contacts in the WH to understand that emails to the public Bush email addy wouldn’t be seen by Bush himself until it’d passed through quite a few hands.

hands that are most likey paid salaries. anything that can be done to assist those hands in pre-sorting is a good thing.

pick your battles, folks, it isn’t like the Administration isn’t giving you sufficient cause to be concerned in other areas. Save your fears for the Patriot Act II coming soon to a city near you, et al.