When I first discovered the Internet, I was blown away by its global reach. Because of this, I tended to think in terms of global or national political action, and pay little attention to local politics. If you're like most people, you can be far more effective in the context of your everyday life, or at least, that's where you should start. Sooner or later you have to take a stand. Your online identity and presence are malleable.
Money changes everything.
If you really want to scale up your political efforts and have a real effect on legislation, you'll have to raise money, and the business of raising money can change the character of your commitment. You may be the one person who won't change when money's involved, but I doubt it. I don't have any great advice here. EFF-Austin operated with practically no funds because we could leverage the talents of our board members and get occasional donations, but our mission was limited. We wanted to educate people about computer networks and the political and civil liberties issues that were emerging as cyberspace evolved, and we could do that with an email list, a web site, and a few events.