eWeek reports the number of Americans contacting senators/congressmen dramatically increased in the past few years, fueled mostly by online grassroots advocacy. The problem? Per the Congressional Management Foundation:
The constituent expectation for on-demand, online information can place a strain on many congressional offices already struggling with resource limitations and communications strategies designed for old media.
In a goal-post moving debacle worthy only of the Federal legislature, Americans newly tuned in to policy debates, at least momentarily reaching beyond bombastic cable talking-heads in expressing themselves to representatives, are greeted by generic auto-responders or silence.
The same technology that empowers millions to mass e-mail form letters to lawmakers also drives members of Congress to mass e-mail boilerplate responses to constituents in return. This is what we call a push.