Writing an advocacy letter

As always, we begin with a disclaimer.

Everything you read on this website is the personal opinion of John Stephens, the author. It may not reflect the thoughts, ideas, opinions, or belief systems of GAMA, any member of the GAMA staff, or any other member of the GAMA Board of Directors. It may not reflect the opinions of Mr. Stephens family, his business partners, or the government and flag he swears allegiance to.

It was my most sincere hope to talk about our industry and avoid politics in these weekly posts, but sometimes your industry is political. (Truthfully, all of life is political, and people who say "politics doesn't affect me" are living either the most privileged of lives, or just lying to themselves.) Right now, we are caught in the most political of situations, a potential extinction level event that could wipe out huge segments of our industry. To fight against this we must band together and be advocated for ourselves.

So, today, we talk about advocacy, but in particular, we talk about one form of advocacy. I want to talk to you about the advocacy letter, the act of writing to your elected representatives in the federal government. If you live in the United States, you have three of them; two Senators for your state, and one Congressperson, elected to represent your Congressional District in the United States House of Representatives.

Normally at this time I would tell you that both branches of our bicameral legislative body are broken and useless beyond repair, but today instead I'd like to talk to you about communicating with them.

We have to start by knowing who to communicate with. We do that by clicking on this link and telling the website where you live. Please, it is very important to tell the website where you live, not where your warehouse is, not where your store is, but where you live. Why is this important? Your email is going to land on the desk of an aid, not your elected representative, and if you can't vote for that person, your email gets trashed. They're not your representative, so you're not their problem (this is trained to them, it's shitty, but real).

Now that we know who we're sending our emails to, we need to send an email, and we need that email to be a clear and effective method of communication, so there are steps to follow.

EDITOR'S NOTE: Mr. Stephens deals with stress through exaggerated humor. If this style is offensive to you, I'd encourage you to scroll down to the line break beneath this next section.

1. Identify Yourself
   This is the basics, 'Hi, I'm John Doe, and I live at 4778 Yousuckatyourjob Drive'. I'm also the owner of AwesomeGames Publishing, where I employ sixteen other people in my small business, many of them also living within your district.
2. What's the Issue
   On a day that will forever live in infamy, a jackwad moron stood in front of a totally fake chart and announced something he called 'Ownthelibs Day', where he went out of his way to ruin my business.
3. What's the Fix
   You should impeach the jackwad moron, then after he's removed from office, you should have him arrested and tried on treason, because let's be honest, he's a puppet of Puddin. More immediately, you must invoke Section 202(c) of the NEA (50 U.S.C. §1622(c)), and bring a joint resolution to the floor ending the current economic emergency.
4. Facts
   I now have seventy billion dollars of products stuck in China because I need to pay two hundreds and forty billions in tariffs to get them into the United States. So now, my product will not be on store shelves for the holiday season, so you and that moron jackwad will have ruined Christmas for tens of millions of Americans, my customers. JM's (jackwad morons) actions will have disastrous effects on the prices of my precious luxury good beloved by children and adults across this country.
5. Personalize Me!
   Not only will this affect children and adults, but it will cost me my business, which my pa opened in 1866 after he came home from the war, and which he and I have run ever since. We pay our taxes, we employ other folks who pay their taxes, and we raise our children in this great city that you represent in Congress.
6. Make them Feel Important
   It can really only be you, good sir or madam in the Senate or House, who lifts the beacon of Lady Liberty, and saves us from Jackwad Moron and his disastrous new taxes on American people. You are the smartest, the brightest, the most brilliant of the dumb folks elected to Congress, and we need you, now, to lead the unenlightened out of darkness and back to true freedom and economic prosperity.
7. Beg Them to Pay Attention
   I know that your time is precious, and there are numerous important things you must accomplish; like profiting from the stock market with insider trading, somehow carrying his golf bag while simultaneously kissing the feet of your dictator, and drinking a single bottle of Scotch that costs more than most American families will make this month, but I implore you to take this threat to businesses in your district seriously, and fight for the people of your district.

In practice, your letter should look something more like this than the one I have outlined above, although those headings are pretty much correct.

YOUR NAME
YOUR ADDRESS

Dear Legislator (use their name, I typically go with TITLE LASTNAME)

My name is John Doe, and I write to you as one of your constituents living at YOUR ADDRESS. I am also the TITLE of a small business, located BUSINESS ADDRESS. We are in the BUSINESS DECRIPTION and have been doing business for NUMBEROFYEARS.

I am writing today to ask that you stand with small businesses and fight against the disastrous and unfair tariffs announced on Liberation Day. You can lead the fight to end these tariffs by invoking Section 202(c) of the NEA (50 U.S.C. §1622(c)) and calling for an immediate end to this international economic emergency.

These tariffs have impacted me DESCRIBE IMPACT. (Have you paid these tariffs? Have you left product in China? Have you stopped selling your product in the United States? Laid off employees? Lost something else? Describe that impact here. The ending of this economic emergency would lead to DESCRIBE WHAT YOU GET BACK (me rehiring staff, me fulfilling promised products on Kickstarter, I like to touch on the personal and professional in both the impacts and the benefit if your representative does as they're told).

The tariffs have not just impacted me though. I'm a member of a trade association with more than 1,700 members, and these tariffs are all we're talking about. The Liberation Day taxes on Americans are threatening all 1,700 member companies right now.

According to the Tax Foundation, a non-partisan, non-profit group, the Liberation Day taxes will raise some money, but will actually lower GDP by as much as 1%.

Because companies have to pass these extra costs onto the buyer, it will raise taxes on the average American, your voters, by 1.3%. That costs the average household $1,300 per year. This is larger than the tax increases of President George H.W. Bush and a larger tax increase than that passed by President Obama.

Finally, these taxes are lowering demand for American products globally, depressing the number of tourists visiting America, and costing us more jobs today than they could possibly create.

America's greatest export is our culture. People the world over see American movies, buy American music, enjoy American television shows. People the world over read American novels, wear blue jeans, and dream of eating Apple Pie while watching the mighty Mississippi roll by. These taxes are killing that American Dream, an American Dream that was our greatest export, the promise of American greatness.

With this in mind I hope we can count on your leadership in (BRANCH), introduce a resolution to end this emergency. Build the coalition that can override the veto you'll most assuredly face. It is important that your voice is heard on this issue.

I'm looking forward to a response from you and your team after you have read this email. I anxiously await seeing you take on a national leadership role in protecting small businesses. If you have any questions about the effects of this issue on my small business, I am happy to share more with you.

Best,
NAME
ADDRESS

Then share your advocacy with your friends, your neighbors, and your colleagues. My letter is not the only letter, or best letter, it's a starting place for you to help tell your story, and then get other people to tell their story.

Then, share their responses with your friends! Better, share their response with your local news media. Let's see if there are any leaders left in Washington.