With another election cycle just concluded, my level of irritation with political direct mail is at its peak. Some of this is, of course, my fault; I should be wise enough to discard on sight each and every fundraising solicitation I receive in the mail. Yet some originate from organizations I respect, and so I feel an obligation to open them and give them a fair hearing; and some are so absurd on their face as to cause me to open them out of a morbid fascination.

The good folks at the Intercollegiate Studies Institute unfortunately met both these criteria with a recent mailing. Entitled “Educate for Liberty Census”, it had all the hallmarks of political boob bait. It started with the official-looking envelope that pushed the bounds of impersonating an official document. Inside there was a standard fundraising letter, signed by the President of the organization; and then an Official Census Form. Folded in half, this form was closed with a silly “Security Seal” sticker, and was bedecked with bogus control numbers and identification numbers and such. Near the beginning of the “survey” was a section, suffused with ALL CAPS, asking me whether this Very Important Document had reached me with the seal intact and un-tampered with. (Just why it was so important that an uncompleted survey form should be untampered with went unexplained.) It also instructed me that, if I did not wish to complete the “Census”, I should return it to ISI with the seal still intact, so they could then pass it on to someone else. (What, with my name and personal information printed on it? If I took anything this document said seriously, I would be gravely concerned by the prospect.)

The “Census” itself consisted of the standard leading questions that would gather no useful information whatsoever, even if anyone ever bothered to tally the results. (Unlike the standard political mailer, this one did not promise to pass on the critically important survey results to Important People; so I give it even less odds of being tallied than the average boob bait survey.) It concluded, of course, with a plea for money—preferably for a generous donation to the organization, but failing that, for at least a few dollars ($7 to $9 seems to be typical) to cover the costs of this Very Important Project.

In the past, I have written to some of the perpetrators of these direct-mail insults, but never enjoyed the courtesy of a reply. (Sen. John Thune’s “Heartland Values PAC” was one past offender, leaving me with a twinge of regret for having contributed to his 2004 campaign.) So this time around, I decided to instead post a message on ISI’s own forums. While not concealing the level of my displeasure with the mailing, I tried to keep things cordial, and emphasize how much I respected the organization.

My post got deleted without comment anyway. And so far I have heard nothing from ISI privately either.

So I am reproducing here the deleted post. I feel some regret in singling out ISI; but this mailing was so far beneath them as an organization, and their consigning my complaint to the memory hole without a word of reply is such bad manners, that I believe it needs to be done. It is my hope that many more such complaints will crop up around the blogosphere, and that the political consultants and fundraising gurus who seem to take Americans for idiots and rubes may take to heart Peggy Noonan’s recent words:

Here’s a thing about American politics. Nobody sees himself as the base. They see themselves as individuals. And they’re not dumb. They get it all. They know when you’re trying to manipulate. They’ll even tell you, with a lovely detachment, if you’re doing a good job. (An unreported story this year is the lack of imagination, seriousness and respect in the work of political consultants on both sides. They have got to catch up with American brightness.)

Let me emphasize one more time that I have a great deal of respect for ISI as an organization. I am rapping their knuckles here not because I have turned on them, but because I fervently hope that they continue to do fine work in the future, and that they will in future avoid retaining direct-mail firms that besmirch their reputation by taking their membership for morons. That said, here now is the message I posted on ISI’s message boards.

Dear ISI folks,

I consider myself a friend of ISI, and have been for a long time. I have subscribed to various ISI publications over the years, and still do. I have known a number of ISI people, and ISI has been an especially good friend to my undergraduate college.

It is because I am a friend of ISI that I raise a public complaint here about a mailing I recently opened (I am not sure if it just arrived, or was sent some weeks ago…I have been going through piles of neglected stuff in my home office). It was so silly, and such a colossal insult to my intelligence, that it makes me wonder about the state of the organization, and about the signatory of the enclosed letter.

I am referring to the “Educate for Liberty Census” mailing. On the outside, it has the sort of misleading “OFFICIAL CORRESPONDENCE” livery that would have made me throw it out on sight…only I saw that it had come from ISI, and so I opened it.

Inside was a “Census” document, with ridiculous “Security Seal”, and the sorts of hectoring leading questions that I would expect to come from the less intelligent Congressional candidates. (”Do you think America is a good country? Do you know that college professors are overwhelmingly Leftist scum who disagree with you about that? Will you send us money now?”)

I could go on and on about the inanity of this mailing, but I’m sure that anyone who has actually seen it and has half a brain can supply their own commentary. And I do not intend to bash ISI at unnecessary length on its own forums. But surely I am not the only one who was not only disheartened, but well nigh offended, by this colossally stupid fundraising mailing.

I am registering my complaint here in hopes that it will get the attention of people who matter. I have complained to people before about such mailings–usually to politicans and political groups, as they are the most common culprits–and never enjoyed the courtesy of a reply. I hope that because ISI is a decent organization, and because a number of people associated with ISI outside the mailroom can be expected to check in on these forums on occasion, that it will be different this time.

I do hope that it will, because I would very much like to be able to continue commending ISI to students and colleagues, without fear that they will wind up being sent mailings that insult their intelligence, and that make ISI look like a thorougly unserious organization.

(The original was signed with my full name and institutional affiliations.)