A New Service Allows You to Pay Others to Call Congress for You. That’s a Terrible Idea.

Lee Drutman wrote for Vox's Polyarchy about a new app that allows you to pay others to contact Congress for you: 

Here’s the most depressing news I’ve come across all week: There is a new “civic action” service called “Civi.” It allows well-off people to pay other (presumably less well-off) people to make calls to Congress on their behalf. For just $14.99 a month, you too can hire somebody to call your member of Congress for you — 21 times! (Thirteen calls are $9.99, six calls are $4.99.)

“For a single issue,” the service boasts, “Civi will call your Representative, and keep calling until your Representative’s office picks up and Civi delivers your message regardless of how many attempts this takes.” That’s the kind of doggedness I like to see in my personal assistants!

“Civic Action Network allows you to actively participate in our democracy without disrupting your day to day life.” (My italics.) How convenient!

“Civi is a real person ready to call on your behalf. Your own personal assistant and direct line to Congress.” (My italics.) And why not? If I can hire somebody clean my house, to deliver my groceries, to put together my Ikea furniture, why not hire somebody to be my very own personal civic activist?

After all, why shouldn’t politics be just like any other form of commerce in our service-based economy? If Washington is already overwhelmed by lobbyists for wealthy corporations and big donor–funded associations, why shouldn’t I also benefit from the commercialization of politics? Tell me: Why should responsive political representation be any different from getting your laundry done?

“Welcome to modern-day civic involvement,” Civi boasts. Sigh, if true.

But maybe I’m just old-fashioned, and think if you care enough about an issue that you want to contact your member of Congress, you should invest some of your own time and energy.

Is the tide of history against me? For example, you can also now sign up for Resistbot, in which you can just reply to a text message and contact your members of Congress. Civic engagement from the comfort of a bar.

But it’s worse. In addition to cheapening the meaning of civic engagement, services like these also don’t seem to have any consideration of how their demands will be received and processed.