A recommended list of "asks"
If Congress asks us what the Confederate heritage community specifically wants it to do, here are my recommendations.
Another great article from Mr. Don Smith over at Confederate Honor. However, I personally believe the time for asks is long over. I fear we’ve been too polite for too long. Politicians and bureaucrats have no motivation to placate the polite. It is time we ‘DEMAND.’ Else we might surely become ungovernable once again… THAT motivates politicians. - DD
A few years ago, when I called a Congressional staffer to complain about what the Naming Commission had done, they testily asked “OK, what do you want?”
I appreciated that. Good politicians try to give their constituents what they want, presuming that (a) it won’t hurt the politician and (b) it’s not hard to actually do what the constituents want.
If you don’t have a ready list of “asks,” you can’t blame the politician for concluding that you’re not serious. It’s like going into a store and wandering aimlessly through the aisles. The salesman can’t sell you anything if you don’t know what you’re looking for or can’t articulate what you want to buy. The politician, or his/her staffer, might conclude that you simply called them to vent.
If, however, you present a politician with a list of plausible “asks,” i.e., a list of things that they can reasonably do—-then you put them on the spot. You put them in a position where, if they say no to your requests, they need to justify saying no. Many politicians will take the easy way out, pick one or two things off your list, and do those things.
But first, you have to have a list. Here’s my proposed list…