“do everyone a favor and call your elected officials in Washington” it is a common refrain, and one repeated this morning by top VC blogger Fred Wilson, but I disagree.

Don’t call it does nothing. Zero, zip, nada, nothing

We think it does, because every advocacy group out there pounds it into our head: “call, call, call” But they are doing this not because they think the call itself will create change, they are telling everyone to call because if a supporter participates in an action, even a small insignificant one, they are more likely to be hardend in their support. Someone who picks up a phone and calls an elected official is more likely to donate next time they get a email, a supporter who calls is more likely to show up and actually vote on election day, a supporter who calls is more likely to talk to friends.

The elected official in question is NOT more likely to vote in line with the caller.

I have had a number of former congressional interns and staffers on my payroll and many of them will tell you that 1. its an intern who really does not care answering the phone and that 2. the tally of the calls often does not even get recorded and certainly does not get passed along to the member. No tally, no report. The only result from your call to an elected official is 5 minutes of your time, and 5 minutes of some capital hill interns time is now gone.

Let me repeat that: Almost all members of congress do not even get a tally of who called on what side of what issue. They don’t care. As they should not..

Should we really be making complex, hard, detail riddled public policy based on who is cranky enough and with enough free time to pick up their phone and yell at a congressional intern for a few minutes? No we should not.

So don’t call. Don’t do it. Instead, write a check. Write lots of checks. When you write that check make sure the campaign staff knows why you are writing that check. Write a lot of checks and very soon elected officials will start calling you asking for checks. When they do, write them a check, do it right after you tell them about the issue you support and care about.

Vote. Get out and actually vote.

This is the system we have today. It is not the system we all learned about in grade school, but it is the system we have today. Yes, it would be great if over time, voters stood up and moved our country into a different system more responsive to voters. But, this is the system we have today.

But don’t call, its dumb, its a waste of everyone’s time…