I Sent My Congressman a Fully-Sourced List of Concerns. He Sent Back a Form Letter About 2017.
A personal account — and what it taught me about who our representatives are actually listening to.
A few days ago, I did something I hadn't done in years: I sat down and actually wrote to my representative in Congress.
I'm from North Alabama. I'm represented by Dale Strong. And I didn't write to him out of habit or ritual — I wrote because I'd spent hours building a fully-sourced reference document tracking everything from Trump's crypto earnings to the Medicaid cuts to the SAVE Act to the $600 million ballroom he swore would cost taxpayers "zero dollars." I linked primary sources — Congress.gov, CBO data, court filings — so nothing in it was just my opinion. I wanted my representative to actually engage with what's happening, not with talking points.
Here's roughly what I sent him:
"I'm writing to you not as a talking point, but as a constituent who is genuinely scared about where this country is headed... A man was arrested and indicted for touching a piece of peeling pool coating, while over 1,500 people convicted or charged in the January 6th attack on our Capitol were pardoned — and are reportedly being paid out of a $1.8 billion fund. My grocery bill, my rent, and my electric bill have all gone up, despite being promised prices would come down 'starting on Day One.' Over a trillion dollars is being cut from Medicaid and food assistance for families like mine, in the same bill that hands roughly a trillion dollars in tax breaks to the wealthiest 1%... I'm asking you directly: What are you doing about this?"
I asked him five direct questions. Did he support investigating the $500 million UAE stake in the President's family crypto venture. Did he support the SAVE Act, which could disenfranchise over 21 million citizens who lack easy access to the required documents. Whether he'd pushed for a public accounting of the Iran war's cost. How he squared "cutting waste" with a trillion-dollar Medicaid cut sitting next to a trillion-dollar tax break for the top 1%. And whether he believed a man should face a felony charge for touching a pool while January 6th defendants get pardons and payouts.
Here is his response, in full, unedited:
"Dear Constituent,
Thank you for taking the time to contact me. It is good to hear from you.
I appreciate you sharing your thoughts regarding President Trump and actions taken by his Administration thus far. I am proud to support President Trump and his approach because he puts American workers and families at the center of every decision and produces results for the American people. President Trump has worked tirelessly to secure our border, combat unfair trade practices, and root out waste and inefficiencies in our government...
During the first Trump Administration, we saw outcomes that directly benefited American workers and families. He championed pro-growth tax policies that provided much-needed relief to hardworking Americans, leading to increased wages and a booming economy...
I understand this is important to you, and our views may not align on every issue. However, please know that I will carefully and thoughtfully consider your thoughts and any relevant proposals before the House of Representatives...
Sincerely, [Rep. Dale Strong]"
Read that again. I asked about 2026. He answered about 2017. I asked five specific, yes-or-no questions about specific, documented, dated events — a UAE crypto deal, a voter ID bill currently sitting in Congress, a war whose costs are still being withheld from the public. He responded with a general statement of support for "pro-growth tax policies" and "a booming economy," language that could have been generated without ever opening my email.
I don't think this was written for me. I think it was written before me — a template sitting in a drawer, triggered by a keyword match somewhere in my message, sent back without a single staffer actually reading what I'd asked.
What this actually tells us
I want to be fair here, because I think it matters. Alabama's 5th district is not a competitive seat. Representatives in safe districts have very little electoral incentive to substantively engage constituents who are unlikely to vote for them anyway — my email probably got sorted into a bucket labeled "opposed" and answered accordingly, with the standard packet, before anyone weighed the specifics of what I'd actually raised.
That's not indifference to me personally. It's something arguably more concerning: a representative process where your actual, sourced, specific concerns don't need to be read, because your vote has already been counted as lost. Where does that leave any of us — not just people who disagree with Dale Strong, but every constituent whose district isn't competitive enough to force real engagement?
I wanted to write this down and share it, because I think a lot of people assume writing to Congress does nothing, and I want to be honest about what "nothing" actually looks like from the inside — it's not silence. It's a very polished, very confident letter about a presidency that ended in 2021, standing in for an answer to a presidency happening right now.
If you've written to your representative and gotten something similar, I'd genuinely like to hear about it. I don't think I'm the only one this is happening to, and I think there's something worth documenting in just how many of these letters read exactly the same.
If you want to see the full, sourced record I sent him — every case, every dollar, every quote, linked to its original source — you can read it here. Fill in your own representative's contact info and send it. I'd like to know what you hear back.
This post reflects my personal correspondence and opinions. The full reference document linked above cites primary sources for every factual claim referenced here.