Tweet
Some surprising news from The Christian Science Monitor regarding Twitter use in Washington:
More GOP than Democratic lawmakers use Twitter to communicate with constituents and the news media, according to a new Congressional Research Service study [PDF]. Substantially more. Sixty percent of the senators and representatives registered with Twitter are Republican, CRS found. That figure seems even more impressive when you remember that there are fewer of them to begin with.
It’s the House that’s the Twitter GOP hotbed. Fully half of the Capitol Hill Twitterverse is composed of House Republicans. Obviously they’ve got some organized Twitter strategy going on in the GOP caucus.
I have no scientific proof, but it seems that conservatives are also more proficient with their use of Facebook. I’ll let you speculate as to why and whether it’s significant.
What’s on your mind tonight?
9 Comments
Ah yes, McDermott – he really isn’t that much of a leader, but he IS a dependable vote against the worst excesses of the military spending train wreck.
You expect learned discourse from the right wing? Tweeting isn’t such hard work.
Ruth – It’s harder than one might think to boil down complicated, nuanced policy positions to less than 140 characters… OK, I see your point.
NO isn’t easy to stomach, for sure, either.
Maybe it’s because about all their brains can handle is 140 characters at a time?
Twitter’s well suited for bumpersticker logic and bullshit. Remember, Palin’s “death panels” bullshit came from a Twitter that she (or the person she has Tweeting for her) made.
Look at the social aspects of Tweeting and FaceBook vs actually having a blog.
As I understand it, Tweeting requires someone to follow, as does FaceBook. A patriarchal figure, as it seems. It seems to me that those on the right side of the spectrum are always looking for some sort of figure that they can follow. Using jingles and bumperstickers means they do not have to think for themselves. Using Tweets and FaceBook, tribal boundaries can be enforced by their implicit “invitation only” participation.
Whereas, on the left, everyone actually tries to think for themselves resulting in a potential nightmare for those trying to organize a “united front”. Most of those I meet on the “left” seem to respect their fathers instead of worshiping them.
Here’s how Fred Thompson uses twitter:
Wow…republicans are just learning how to the the computer now, welcome to modern age technology.