Excellent read. Keeping this here as much for context as motivation.
On constituent activity: “We all do plenty of things without knowing if or when or how or how much they will work: we say prayers, take multivitamins, give money to someone on Second Avenue who looks like she needs it. So, too, with calling and e-mailing and writing and showing up in congressional offices: it would be good to know that these actions will succeed, but it suffices to know that they could.”

http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/03/06/what-calling-congress-achieves