You need to do more than just vote. Voting provides one bit of information to the electoral process, and you split that one bit between all of your political convictions. Worse, most of that signal is lost in the electoral laundry.

The best info that politicians can get on this sort of thing comes from polling, and people only poll on electoral issues. If you want specific policy change you need to help bring it to the attention of elected officials and electoral candidates.

>Yeah, how's that working out?

It isn't, of course. But that's not the topic on hand.

you know what?

this is actually something that we should contact our elected officials on

what has to happen here? someone at the State Department has to sign off on it?

that sounds like the sort of thing the right congressman or senator making a phone call could make happen

that also sounds like the sort of thing that many congressmen and senators would enjoy bragging about accomplishing