If you have not heard the name Anthony Weiner before, please refrain from snickering. Weiner is a congressman in the U.S. House of Representatives, representing the ninth district of New York and a growing inspiration to all liberals with spines nationwide. As opposed to the Democratic Party, which shies away from debate and discussion on controversial topics, Weiner welcomes them with open arms and unprecedented spunk and delivery. Weiner should undoubtedly serve as an example of how passion and courage can propel an individual from relative obscurity to being a household name.
Search Anthony Weiner on YouTube and you will encounter a multitude of interviews, speeches and clips from the ever-stimulating C-SPAN Channel. Weiner’s fiery rant in June of last year in favor of providing health benefits to 9/11 first responders, much to the annoyance of republicans, has become a viral hit with numerous calls for the congressman to run for president in 2016.
Unlike most politicians who earn fame through YouTube- see Sarah Palin’s Greatest Hits- Weiner is going viral for all the right reasons. Rather than ignorance and error shining through, we encounter an individual who is making a name for himself by virtue of his tireless research and willingness to confront his enemies civilly and without backing down.
Many clips of Weiner feature him as the target of various Fox News hosts and pundits. Unlike legitimate news sources, the right wing and narrative-based FOX relies on being louder and meaner than guests who oppose the network’s collective view, rather than collecting facts to form an intelligible argument. It’s common to see guests of Sean Hannity and Bill O’Reilly sitting in silence, praying for the barrage of one-way, high-decibel psycho-babble to cease so as to be able to put a word in edgewise—Anthony Weiner is not one of these guests.
Weiner does not fear FOX in a way that many of his democratic counterparts seem to. As a frequent guest on the channel, Weiner seems amused by the inevitable shouting matches and welcomes them. When FOX fights, Weiner fights back as seen in a recent interview with Sean Hannity, where Hannity initiates a shouting match over deficit reduction as Weiner continues to spout off a stream of facts to which Hannity is only able to continually reply “that’s not true.”
Weiner’s research is unquestionably thorough, as it has been reported that over his decade tenure in the House, numerous employees have quit working for him due to the long hours he forces them to put in. Unlike so many of his quick-to-concede counterparts on the left, Weiner never goes to battle for his cause without the proper artillery of information and sheer delight needed to dent the armor of the FOX machine.
It’s hard to say that if all democrats, including President Obama, were as fearless as Weiner, the country would operate any differently. As we have learned with the Health Care Reform Bill, filibuster is a powerful tool of obstruction and rarely in history will a single party hold as strong of a majority as democrats did before the midterm elections. That being said, democrat or republican, it would serve every person in the country well to find a calling and become as educated and passionate about it as congressman Weiner. Even if it’s not one’s goal to be elected to a political office or to become rich and famous, being well-read and making an effort to be memorable, for the right reasons, will only serve to distinguish an individual in the minds of those around him. There is no shame in being inspired by Weiner.
