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I Wrote To My Representative

I used to do this more frequently. We should all be doing this more frequently.

  • Eric McCarthy
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One thing I suspect partisans like myself underappreciate is the extent to which members of Congress are driven by the concerns their constituents choose to share. Back in my days on Twitter, I followed someone who used to work as a congressional staffer and this was their common refrain.

I used to write my congressperson occasionally, but it has been well over a decade since I have. Part of the reason for this has been a creeping cynicism that this doesn’t do much good. But I think I’ve been getting this wrong. So yesterday I wrote the following to my Republican congressman, Juan Ciscomani:

Dear Representative Ciscomani,

I am writing to express my deep concern over the recent events unfolding in the Executive Branch, particularly those in which involve the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) and its leader, Elon Musk.

As a professional software engineer who was on Twitter during Musk’s takeover, I watched in disbelief as Musk publicly ridiculed and derided the engineering work of his new employees. While many of the layoffs were in no doubt necessary for Twitter to remain profitable after the buyout, Musk could have chosen to treat those who had to be let go with the respect they deserved, given their contributions to making and keeping Twitter a company worth $44 billion. Instead Musk chose a chaotic, mean spirited, and reckless path. By all accounts, Twitter (now X) is greatly devalued with advertisers increasingly avoiding engaging in business with it.

This very public display of disrespect was a turning point of opinion for many experienced software engineers of Musk. It seems he now surrounds himself with young and inexperienced acolytes — perhaps these are the only kind of people who do not challenge him. Sadly, it seems he has brought these people into DOGE and installed them in places where their inexperience and past associations with online gangs such as “The Com” could put government computer systems in danger of compromise.

Musk’s vendetta against the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) is another area where his capriciousness threatens the security of the United States. By disrupting and potentially completely stopping aid programs the standing of the U.S. will worsen and China will step in and fill the void.

I do not believe most of those who voted for Trump in Arizona’s 6th Congressional District had this sort of mayhem and disregard for security in mind when they cast their votes. My hope is that you will sponsor congressional action to rein in Musk and DOGE.

Sincerely,
Eric McCarthy

I’ll be resending this to my Democratic senators as well.

My approach to writing these letters is to attempt to persuade without being overly emotive and establish my credibility. I like to make it clear what my area of expertise is and how it is relevant to my concern. Keeping it to the facts and tying those facts to my concern make it more difficult for my concern to be dismissed.

I also don’t like to bring up my party affiliation or whether or not I voted for them. I’m their constituent regardless. It’s tempting to say that my vote for them is contingent on them taking action to address my concern, but I think leaving the door open to the possibility that I am a swing voter without ever explicitly mentioning it is more than enough.

One thing I did not do a good job of in this letter is being specific as to what action I’d like to see. When it comes to votes on legislation this is pretty straightforward. But in this instance I really don’t know what a good course of action for my Republican congressman would be. It may not be something specifically legislative in nature. Even just talking to a journalist and saying that he has reservations about Musk and DOGE would be welcome as it would open the doors for more Republicans to do the same.

If you want to write to your members of Congress, enter your address on the Find Your Members form of congress.gov. The “Contact” link should go directly to a web form to submit your note. My understanding is that this is generally the preferred way to express written concerns — snail mail requires a longer processing time. I’m not sure if by phone is any better or worse, but I’m a much better writer than I am a phone-talker so I just go with that.