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Even before the confirmation hearings for Supreme Court nominee Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson began, there was little doubt Republicans would use the occasion to make headlines, rather than conduct genuine inquiries into her qualifications.
Some viewers accused Republicans of simply “doing it for the ‘Gram” or — to put it another way — going on theatrical diatribes that might play well to their base in snippets posted on social media. The obsession with creating content that agitates or arouses is a broad problem, encouraged by social media algorithms, that virtually every user experiences.
But it’s a particular problem when the addiction seems to nab lawmakers whose task is to legislate our lives, not focus on going viral.
To quote Cardi B and Offset: “They do anything for clout.”
The competition is stiff, but Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, has been the most overt clout-chaser throughout the hearings, going on repeated rants about everything from critical race theory to child pornography. His outburst Wednesday delayed the hearing for several minutes as he demanded more time than he was allotted to question Jackson — again — about cherrypicked sentences he cited to make her seem indifferent to crime.
People watching in the courtroom and online pointed out that Cruz seemed to be scrolling social media once his rant ended, and a Los Angles Times photographer confirmed — with a photo — that Cruz had been checking Twitter for mentions of his name.
Even Sen. Ben Sasse of Nebraska, the first Republican to question Jackson after Cruz, seemed to reference Cruz’s outburst and tie it to a desire to go viral.
“I think we should recognize that the jackassery we often see around here is partly because of people mugging for short-term camera opportunities,” Sasse said, as part of his argument against placing cameras in Supreme Court hearings.
Cruz, as you may know if you follow politics online, has swooped in to fill the welcome void left by former President Donald Trump's bans from Twitter and Facebook. He's molded himself in Trump's virtual image, adopting a more brash, bigoted and conspiratorial persona.
All of this poses interesting, if not troubling, questions for the future of lawmaking in a world increasingly driven by social media. Namely: how to work with or around lawmakers who can't kick their social media fixations.
The GOP’s obsession with “owning the libs” — as Cruz has attempted to do throughout Jackson's hearings — is driven largely by rabid supporters on social media platforms who reward confrontation and conflict with “likes” and shares.
Cruz — and the country — would be better served by him logging off.