Daniel Marans
@dmarans
The removal of Rep. Al Green (D-Texas) from Trump's speech to Congress last night was one of the more notable moments in the evening. Green, cane in hand, had stood up repeatedly to interrupt Trump while Trump was outlining his election win and the "mandate" it gave him. Watch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GvBxq01SdvY
5 replies
0 recast
27 reactions
Daniel Marans
@dmarans
Loud protests by opposition party members have become increasingly common during presidential addresses. The first time I remember seeing it was during George W. Bush's 2005 state of the union address when Democrats booed his Social Security privatization plan. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RBxmEGG71PM
2 replies
0 recast
2 reactions
Daniel Marans
@dmarans
And of course, there was then-Rep. Joe Wilson (R-S.C.) yelling "you lie" in 2009 when Obama said the ACA would not cover undocumented immigrants, and various Lauren Boebert/Majorie Taylor Greene interruptions during the Biden years. https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2024/03/07/bad-behavior-state-of-the-union-00145473 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xI9uGg1q8WY
1 reply
0 recast
1 reaction
Daniel Marans
@dmarans
So how should we interpret the rise in these incidents? In terms of causes, higher partisan polarization, narrower audience targeting, and the demands of virality in the digital age are key. ...
1 reply
0 recast
1 reaction
Daniel Marans
@dmarans
... How should people concerned about polarization feel about all this? Part of me thinks that if Congress did away with some of its superficial commitment to collegiality and allowed the kind of raucousness that is prevalent in, say, the UK's House of Commons, we might actually have more room to address root causes. I'm not so sure though, because when these moments go viral among an opposition party's base it can become it's own incentive to engage in self-cocooning, partisan red-meat throwing, rather than substantive policy work or strategizing about how to broaden coalitions.
1 reply
0 recast
5 reactions
Daniel Marans
@dmarans
That said, judged on their own partisan terms, some of these moments are more effective at landing a punch, or raising an issue's salience, than others. Green's interruption was particularly useless because: the moment in Trump's speech did not make his message self-explanatory; no one heard what he said, since Republicans drowned him out; and because Speaker Johnson had him removed so quickly. Here's his explanation afterward: "The president said he had a mandate. And I was making it clear to the president that he has no mandate to cut Medicaid." https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2e9bS6VnNpw
1 reply
0 recast
0 reaction