Twitter is a revolutionary weapon. The Ben Ali and Mubarak regimes in North Africa found that out the hard way.
American politicians, however, are either oblivious or willfully blind to this development. Sure, most politicians have Twitter accounts. But very few, if any, have used Twitter to its fullest capacity.
That is, until January 2013, when a “Wacko Bird” named Ted Cruz became a U.S. Senator from Texas.
Cruz became the first senator to read Tweets on the Senate Floor during Rand Paul’s filibuster regarding American drone policy. During his filibuster yesterday, Cruz proved that he truly is a master of the Twitterverse.
Cruz’s primary goal for the last few months has been to Defund Obamacare. The movement gained support via his use of #DefundObamacare on Twitter, but that was only the beginning.
Hashtags relating back to Cruz’ filibuster trended higher than those relating to Marvel’s new show “Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.”
No one would call America a nation of political junkies. Though filibusters are somewhat exciting, they usually are not enough to get most to type out 140 characters or change the channel.
All through Tuesday night and Wednesday morning, #MakeDCListen, #StandWithCruz, #DefundObamacare, and phrases from books Cruz read (e.g., “Green Eggs and Ham”) trended on Twitter.
And they not only trended in the US but also caught on across the globe.
The world focused more on a filibuster than any other event because of the little blue bird.
A nation, and a world, that has been somewhat apathetic towards American politics paid attention because of what they were seeing on Twitter. Cruz took advantage of this, reading tweets on the Senate floor so the voice of the American people could be heard. During his filibuster, members of his staff and I worked to organize the thousands, if not millions, of tweets reacting to his all-night speech.
American public opinion has long opposed Obamacare. This has been well publicized. This public opinion, however, never reached critical mass. The House of Representatives, for example, has voted against Obamacare more than 40 times in the last 3 years, and each time these votes have been for naught. Public outcry was never sufficient for the Senate to listen.
They’re listening now.
The defunding of Obamacare isn’t the real story here. Even Cruz’s filibuster isn’t the story. The real story is the outcry of the American people.
We the People have made clear that politicians work for us. We are sovereign. We may not always be organized, but once we are, our voice will be heard, whether politicians want to hear it or not.
Twitter is the great organizer of public opinion. This organization has led to thousands of phone calls to Capitol Hill. An army couldn’t answer them all.
Even if Obamacare is not defunded, the American people have made clear that they will no longer sit quietly. It’s not just conservatives who are in a revolutionary uproar. America is fighting to #MakeDCListen.