#MakeDCListen

Republican Senator Ted Cruz began what the media is calling a fake filibuster – fake because Cruz wasn’t technically delaying a piece of legislation –Tuesday, September 24 in an effort to defund President Obama’s Affordable Care Act. Cruz protested the controversial bill for over 20 hours on the Senate floor. Thanks to Twitter, several constituent voices were heard during the speech as well.

Cruz took several opportunities to read tweets with the hashtags #MakeDCListen and #DefundObamacareBecause throughout his talkathon Tuesday and Wednesday. This may have been mostly beneficial to Cruz because it helped him pass some filibustering time, but I also think his Twitter engagement displayed his interest in listening to constituents and voicing their needs to Congress.

                                  

The hashtags #MakeDCListen, #DefundObamacare and #StandWithCruz became trending topics on Twitter and brought a great deal of attention to the Texan senator’s speech. The hashtag #MakeDCListen in particular was mentioned over 500,000 times from the time Cruz began his speech to the time it ended on Wednesday. Twitter gave all citizens, no matter what political party, a chance to voice their opinion on the Affordable Care Act. The conversation sparked enough interest that The White House’s Twitter account even joined the conversation:

Not only is Twitter useful for easily keeping up to date with news, politics and worldly happenings around us, but the social media site also gives citizens a forum to voice their opinions on issues. Ted Cruz is one of the first congressmen to utilize Twitter on a congressional floor, and I think he did so successfully. It’s safe to say the majority of Americans are not interested or heavily involved in American politics, but Twitter can make it very easy for people to join in on political conversations happening around our nation and around the globe. The trending hashtags like #MakeDCListen grabbed the attention of thousands of Americans Tuesday night; Ted Cruz took advantage of this. By reading the tweets of average American citizens during his filibuster (fake or not), Cruz appeared connected with his followers and his constituents.

Twitter is a great place for the American people to congregate and discuss public opinion. Congressmen work to represent the wants and needs of the American people. Thank you, Ted Cruz for putting two and two together and doing your job this week.