Why I’m NOT Voting for Jeb Bradley…

I’m going to do something I thought I’d never do. I’m going to break the 11th Commandment–the one set forth by Ronaldus Magnus–and I’m going to speak ill of a fellow Republican.
Jeb Bradley: You’ve lost my vote.
You see, Jeb, I had an issue with the way you voted on the Online Freedom of Speech Act last year.
I wrote you. I even called. I asked for a defense of your position on this bill because it was in clear contradiction to my own. You voted with the Democrats on that bill and, as a blogger, you voted to weaken my voice. I asked for some kind of communication as a constituent of yours, and the request fell on deaf ears.
You didn’t even care enough about my opinion to send me a horrible form letter. Instead, the only correspondence I received from you was an auto-generated email that looks suspiciously like this one I got this week:

From: NH01HWYR [mailto:NH01HWYR@housemail.house.gov]

Sent: Monday, October 02, 2006 4:14 PM

To: William Smith

Subject: RE: your message to Congressman Bradley

Thank you for contacting me about your issue of concern.

This is an automatic reply that indicates the receipt of your communication. I will respond as soon as possible to your message if you have requested a response. Regretfully, depending on the detail of your inquiry and the volume of messages to my office, it may take several weeks for me to respond. If you require urgent assistance or are requesting me to assist you with a problem with a federal agency, please contact my staff in my office in Manchester (603) 641-9538 or in Dover (603) 743-4813.

In the meantime, I hope my website at “http://www.house.gov/bradley” will provide you with information you may find interesting about the federal government, Congress, and what I am doing for the First District of New Hampshire.

Thank you again. Your comments are important to me and enable me to make better decisions on behalf of my constituents.

Truth be told, I did have a problem with a federal agency–the House of Representatives of the United States of America. Apparently, my comments didn’t mean a damned thing to you or you might have actually clicked the “Reply” button on the email I sent you.
I’m not alone. It would appear that I’m not the only one that can’t get a reply of any kind from his elected Member of Congress. Jay Tea over at Wizbang reported the same lack of communication from you last November. (Jay Tea was a whole lot nicer about it than I was, I might add.)
Representative government is about accountability, Congressman. If you’re only going to take the calls of the people who support you, then why are you even working for me? It’s not just this bill, either. There have been plenty of other times I’ve emailed and not heard a thing back. There have even been times I’ve called and been told “you’ll have to contact us through the website.”
That’s unacceptable to me.
To that end, I will not vote for you in this upcoming election. I won’t make that mistake again. I won’t vote for your Democrat opponent—I will either vote for a third party candidate if one is on the ballot or write-in my own choice for your seat in Congress. While this is a mostly futile manuever on my part it at least ensures that my voice, while singular, will be heard.
The other thing I hope you take away from this, Jeb, is that blogs aren’t going anywhere and it’s time you realized that. Bloggers are truly vox populi in this day and age. Yes, my vote is my voice where you’re concerned…but my blog is my voice to thousands of others.
The blog aspect clearly must not concern you, so I am left with taking away the only thing that I’m guessing you care about: my vote.
You work for us, Jeb, and we ought to be able to get some kind of communication from you.
William Smith
ConservativeBlogger.com