According to a tweet from Dave Kopel, the anti-gun groups are paying for services to call any supporter they can find and connect those people to the Colorado Senate while debate is in progress on the anti-gun bills.
Antigun lobby is autodialing voters and offering to connect them to StateSen offices to voice support for antigun bills in #coleg
— Dave Kopel (@davekopel) March 8, 2013
Fortunately for us in the pro-rights movement, we have the networks that exist for us to make these request of other gun owners in person. The other side has to pay for it. Of course, by relying on those call center professionals instead of actual grassroots, they are able to more easily target and time their phone calls exactly when they need them.
Astroturfing when it counts the most.
Call center professionals? Are we posting from the same universe?
Professionals, as in people paid to do the work as a job, not people making phone calls out of passion for or knowledge of the issue.
People making phone calls out of passion for or knowledge of the issue are activists.
People making phone calls out of passion for or knowledge of how to use the telephone as an effective marketing or activism tool are professionals.
The typical call center employee…well, let’s say that I can go downtown and see people waiting for streetcars who are much more deserving of the accolade “professional”.
The problem is that they have money to spend on a call center. Time to take that from them too.