Politicians tend to listen to the largest groups, they see more potential votes in swaying a large group. If 100% of the vapers in the US wrote to their representatives we would still be drowned out by the "jobs groups", "taxes groups", "guns groups", heck even the premium cigars groups....
I kinda disagree on politicians listen to the largest group. Too many minority issues are pet causes for many politicians and almost everyone I know is pro "self defense" but gun rights people are treated as extremist minority, with tens of millions in their camp.
I strongly believe if we had the Burr-Harkin discourse from recent hearing playing out on a national level that eventually (like within a few weeks) it would turn the tide on the politics. It would have non-vapers (who currently are clueless on the topic) sitting up and taking notice at how utterly foolish certain Democratic senators appear on this issue. If there was a vocal and respected Democratic congressperson that came out and said, "hey, I enjoy cotton candy flavor as a vaper," it would turn the opposition's arguments on their collective ear.
The Burr-Harkin discourse doesn't need to be top 10 issue either. Some national political commentators, that we are all familiar with, have taken up the issue, more than once. From the pro-vaper's perspective, twice a day, every day isn't enough for them to be talking about it. But I reckon there's a few non-vapers out there who have been swayed to consider this as yet another issue where government overreach is occurring.
I also believe Pubs could benefit greatly from this issue. They'd get to side with modern science and thus not constantly appear like they are stuck in land of wishful thinking on certain issues, plus if they were only side touting pro-vaper cause, and it becomes partisan issue, and Dems are spouting off nonsense (to pro-vaper ears), they'd likely gain a few thousand voters by simply speaking sense. Don't need to be all that passionate as Dems are trying to cover that with "save the children" rhetoric. Just speak calmly, confidently and address THR and scientific data, and the political momentum would shift.
Also would just add that if we had CASAA CTA on this, I think it would fare better than Jman thread or work many in this thread have already done. Instead of 'drip-drip-drip' coming to these congress people, it would be a flood. And get a few of us saying more than "hey please support vaping, it saved my life!' A well constructed argument that they can later select from, in course of actual political debate, would go a long ways, IMHO.
