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| Congress Isn’t a Schoolyard. Time to Deal With Toxic Immaturity. | Congress Isn’t a Schoolyard. Time to Deal With Toxic Immaturity. |
| (32 minutes later) | |
| On Tuesday, Republican Senator Markwayne Mullin of Oklahoma decided to settle a social media beef in the middle of a Senate hearing titled “Standing Up Against Corporate Greed.” Mullin read from a months-old post by Sean O’Brien, the president of the Teamsters, in which O’Brien called Mullin “a clown & fraud,” mocked the senator with an unflattering photo and the hashtag #LittleManSyndrome, and challenged the senator to a fight: “Anyplace, Anytime cowboy,” O’Brien boasted. | On Tuesday, Republican Senator Markwayne Mullin of Oklahoma decided to settle a social media beef in the middle of a Senate hearing titled “Standing Up Against Corporate Greed.” Mullin read from a months-old post by Sean O’Brien, the president of the Teamsters, in which O’Brien called Mullin “a clown & fraud,” mocked the senator with an unflattering photo and the hashtag #LittleManSyndrome, and challenged the senator to a fight: “Anyplace, Anytime cowboy,” O’Brien boasted. |
| Mullin’s reply to O’Brien, who was at the hearing as a witness: “Sir, this is a time, this is a place. If you want to run your mouth, we can be two consenting adults, we can finish it here.” | Mullin’s reply to O’Brien, who was at the hearing as a witness: “Sir, this is a time, this is a place. If you want to run your mouth, we can be two consenting adults, we can finish it here.” |
| “OK, that’s fine. Perfect,” said O’Brien. | “OK, that’s fine. Perfect,” said O’Brien. |
| It devolved from there: “You want to do it now?” “I’d love to do it right now.” “Well, stand your butt up then.” “You stand your butt up.” Mullin stood up, and Senator Bernie Sanders, the committee chairman running the hearing, had to break it up. “Stop it … Sit down … You’re a United States senator,” Sanders said, gesturing for both men to take their seats, rapping his gavel and sounding exactly like my dad breaking up a fight between my brother and me in 1993. | It devolved from there: “You want to do it now?” “I’d love to do it right now.” “Well, stand your butt up then.” “You stand your butt up.” Mullin stood up, and Senator Bernie Sanders, the committee chairman running the hearing, had to break it up. “Stop it … Sit down … You’re a United States senator,” Sanders said, gesturing for both men to take their seats, rapping his gavel and sounding exactly like my dad breaking up a fight between my brother and me in 1993. |
| Video of the fracas went viral — and though I’m not proud of it, I have to admit that I was momentarily entertained. I wasn’t the only one. It was pretty clear that both Democrats and Republicans enjoyed the would-be scrap. Online, I saw all sorts of people expressing support for their guy and placing odds on who’d win an eventual brawl between a Massachusetts teamster and a mixed-martial arts fighter turned legislator. | Video of the fracas went viral — and though I’m not proud of it, I have to admit that I was momentarily entertained. I wasn’t the only one. It was pretty clear that both Democrats and Republicans enjoyed the would-be scrap. Online, I saw all sorts of people expressing support for their guy and placing odds on who’d win an eventual brawl between a Massachusetts teamster and a mixed-martial arts fighter turned legislator. |
| In July, my newsroom colleague Joseph Bernstein described this kind of standoff as part of a trend of high-profile or powerful men fixing to fight. Over the summer, for instance, tech billionaires Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk both expressed interest in facing off in a cage match, though it’s “probably not” going to happen. The set-to between Mullin and O’Brien wasn’t the only incident of its kind in Congress this week. The Times’s Robert Jimison reported on the rest of the action in a story headlined: “Fight Club Erupts on Capitol Hill.” | |
| In today’s attention economy, it’s undeniable that these displays of ultimately juvenile masculinity play extremely well — and Donald Trump, who can be funny, is the master of ceremonies in this adolescent circus. According to a new fact sheet from Pew Research, 43 percent of TikTok’s users regularly get news there, up from 22 percent just three years ago, so the short video medium is likely to only grow in terms of political influence, especially among Gen Z. And though it may go without saying, what’s good for the basest kind of political entertainment isn’t necessarily good for Congress, the country as a whole or young men. |