Hours after healthcare reform finally passed Congress, a huge and hard-fought victory for the Obama administration, political analysts have already begun to speculate on what influenced lawmakers to support or oppose the bill.
The overwhelming majority of Democrats in Congress voted in support of the bill, citing the inherent need for healthcare overhaul and overwhelming number of frustrated constituents as their reasoning.
Republicans, however, overwhelmingly voted against the measure. Their reasoning, though multi-layered, seemed to stem from one simple analysis. Many of their younger constituents-most of whom do not vote or participate in any part of the political process- changed their Facebook profile pictures to a clever variation of the popular Tarantino movie “Kill Bill”, so that they said “Kill the Bill”. Elected Republican representatives were so struck by the picture’s creativity and catchiness that they refused to support the bill.
Some elected representatives even claimed that it wouldn’t have mattered what bill was being put up for a vote because they were so impressed and influenced by picture.
Despite their best efforts, however, the bill will be signed into law by President Obama on Tuesday. Republicans are eagerly anticipating the numerous profile pictures that will be changing to some new, clever symbol of opposition. Until then, many of the politicians continue to browse the social networking site aimlessly, looking at pictures of long-lost friends they care nothing about.
Briana Hansen 