What is the focus?
What is the focus of prominent politicians on Twitter in this week of September 5th?
With Labor Day Weekend, wildfires and recall election in California, Texas abortion laws, rapidly rising COVID cases, aftermath of Hurricane Ida, the crisis in Afghanistan, and the upcoming 20th year anniversary of 9/11, where are we? There are so many pressing domestic and international problems going on, it makes it difficult to even log into Twitter. What is clear is the stark difference in coverage from both the left and right.
Seen on my Twitter page (@EllisonRemy), following prominent activists, journalists, and politicians on the left and right its easy to begin making general groupings of where focuses lie between the two parties. When looking at prominent Twitter pages associated with the Democrats you see messages focused on climate change, reversing the abortion law in Texas, and the recall election in California. What is interesting to note about these examples and many others I witnessed on Twitter, was that the focus seemed to be on the future rather than the past.
This was much different than what I noticed with the more Republican associated news outlets, politicians, and activists on Twitter. These posts or retweets tended to be more related to the past and linking them to the present. This was evident in a tweet by Florida Congressmen Mike Waltz whose appearance on Fox News centered around the anniversary of 9/11 and its relation to the Afghanistan crisis. Much of the focus on the right tended to be around Afghanistan, COVID fatigue, or the economy.
Both seem to paint a rough picture of how things have been going and point a bleak future. I think one of the biggest take-aways from doing this digging on Twitter is the inconsistent focus and messaging on issues that need everyone's attention. When non-political situations turn political, anything or anyone can flip the narrative.
I really enjoyed reading your post about this! I have noticed a trend with left leaning profiles I follow on social media and you're right. It feels like the left is focused on the future, whether that be worrying about it(albeit we seem to be doing that more often than not) or having determination towards a better future. I have been seeing frequent posts about the anniversary of 9/11 which is understandable. I haven't really recognized it before but you make an interesting point on how the right seems to be focused on the past. I think that is a really interesting comparison of the two sides, and perhaps a metaphor of our current political climate.
ReplyDeleteHey Remy, this post was really interesting to read. I agree that it's so hard to even be on social media with all of this going on, it's all I see right now. We're in a time of such uncertainty and it's scary honestly. I also really liked how you compared democratic focuses and republican focuses. It was eye-opening to see how different parties react to what is happening right now.
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