The media has been largely complicit and lazy in their coverage of the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act.
Either they mis-report it, fail to address the local Congressional reps or Senators about it (Arkansas Sen. Pryor and Minnesota’s Klobuchar come to mind), or give them a pass about it when they get a non-comment comment.
As for Congress, it’s far too easy to ignore faxes, tweets, blogs and emails.
Given what’s grabbing Washington’s attention these days, it’s not too much different with phone calls or letters.
Bottom line, I don’t think Congress has taken the opposition seriously and I don’t think the mainstream media truly sees this for the threat that it is. Meantime, the Consumer Reports, PIRG (etc) group has CPSC’s ear.
The Light Bulb
And then it came to me while watching Wyatt Earp the other night: We’ve done nothing that anyone inside the Beltway would care about.
Early in the movie, Wyatt’s dad tells him that if you must shoot a man, you’d better shoot to kill. It’s clear that this is a formative lesson in young Wyatt’s life and the rest of the movie builds on and illustrates that.
While the parallel might not be obvious, think of it this way: the community of bloggers, artisans, authors, librarians, apparel makers, motorcycle shops and so on are throwing water balloons.
Meanwhile, Wyatt shoots to kill.
Despite the regular CPSIA communications coming from our most prolific and up to date on the subject: @kfasanella, @overlawyered, @thesmartmama and @rwoldenberg; the Act remains more or less as written, despite consistent, laborious and untiring efforts on the part of these dedicated folks, as well as intermittent efforts by people like myself and a reasonable amount of coverage in Wired, Forbes, local tv spots across the nation.
Again, this isn’t about allowing lead (etc) in kids’ products. It’s about the economics of scale for the current testing and labeling rules.
Small businesses don’t want to get rid of them, they simply want to have a choice other than “go out of business”.
Carpet Bombing
Back to strategy.
Typical “fight the good fight” strategies simply aren’t working. You can’t carpet bomb the Congress into submission using water balloons.
Like it or not, it’s their house and their rules.
So I got this off-the-wall idea that might address this.
It doesn’t require postage, phone calls, emails or faxes.
Run Forrest Run
I think it’s simpler than that.
In every Congressional district, in every state, someone needs to file to run against the incumbent House Representative.
Yes, it’s early. So what.
The media simply cannot ignore a flurry of declarations of candidacy made on the same day across the nation against every single candidate – particularly when the same answer is given as the reason why this person has decided to run for office.
“Unlike my opponent, my primary task in Washington will not be to force small business owners into bankruptcy.
Within 60 days, I will have a personal conversation with every Representative and every Senator to explain to them why repealing the CPSIA is critical to the success of our economy.
I will document these conversations publicly so that there is no doubt who is and who isn’t for the American people and our economy. I will need your help in this effort.”
Declaring a legal candidacy, whether you get on the ballot or not, will draw the attention of two groups that might not previously have taken the CPSIA racket seriously: the opponent and the media (who loves to see the opponent squirm).
Get out there and make em squirm.
