Fighting back against a bully governor

by: tabbycat31

Mon Nov 28, 2011 at 11:08:29 PM EST

promoted by Rosi

Normally a story about a teenager in Kansas tweeting does not get my attention. When 18-year-old high school senior Emma Sullivan was at an event with her governor at the statehouse last week, she used her cell phone to send the following tweet to her then 65 followers "Just made mean comments at gov brownback and told him he sucked, in person #heblowsalot" (As of this writing, Emma has over 13,000 followers to her governor's 3000) In Kansas, Republican Governor Sam Brownback has staffers who monitor the Internet for content mentioning their bosses name. Emma's tweet was reported to her principal and the school was set to take disciplinary actions and make her apologize to the Governor. Governor Brownback was using his position of power to bully a high school student for saying something negative about him online to her 65 Twitter followers.

But Emma did not back down and refused to apologize to the governor. Today, instead of Emma apologizing to the governor, he apologized to her and her freedom of speech being under attack.

Now imagine if Emma were a high school student in New Jersey instead of Kansas. Now I admit that I do not know much about Governor Brownback and if he has a reputation as a bully or not, but Governor Christie DOES have a reputation as a bully. He's used his position of power to bully teachers, Democratic state senators, and the media (into fawning all over him). Are New Jersey taxpayers paying someone to monitor the web for tweets like Emma's? How would Chris Christie handle a courageous high school student who refuses to back down?

Unless there's a high school student who is willing to tweet @govchristie and tell him that #heblowsalot, we may never know how he would handle such a situation. However hopefully Emma's courageousness will teach the Garden State that they can fight back against a bully governor-- and win!

tabbycat31 :: Fighting back against a bully governor

Tags: Kansas, Sam Brownback, featured, Chris Christie, social media, #heblowsalot, Emma Sullivan, (All Tags)

Print Friendly View

Send As Email

Fighting back against a bully governor | 4 comments

Ummm... (0.00 / 0)

Didn't Emma lie? She never told Gov. Brownback he sucked in person, just tweeted that she did...

(maybe it's besides your point, she didn't apologize, but for accuracy, she didn't have the guts to tell him that in person, the old 'internet courage' was in effect)

"Where ever you go, there you are." - Buckaroo Bonzai

by: William Weber (WjcW) @ Tue Nov 29, 2011 at 18:54:51 PM UTC

Emma Sullivan (0.00 / 0)

I thought The Atlantic - datelined today - handled this well:

"Both of Emma's tweets are silly. (Among other things, Emma actually hadn't told the Governor he sucked, alas.) But so what? Teen-agers are supposed to be silly. It is adults who should be mature. Surrounded by full-grown ninnyhammers, Emma has had to grow up overnight."

It's not a particularly snappy signature, but here's what I think we need in the next NJ Democratic State Chair.

by: Rosi Efthim @ Tue Nov 29, 2011 at 19:17:55 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

Is an 18 year-old still a teenager? (0.00 / 0)

I think that this story is more embarrassing for the Governor's office, because they overreacted to a tweet that happened to be false than it was for her for tweeting about something that she didn't do, but having seen headlines about this story, but not reading them until now, I am definitely less impressed by her than I would have been if she actually had told Brownback that he sucked and then stood by her words.

I could be wrong, but I think that Christie's staff is probably smarter than Brownback's in this regard and they would not have gone after an 18 year-old with the same kind of animus (or at all) that we have seen Christie go after people like Loretta Weinberg and Marie Corfield.

With no due respect to the state of Kansas, I think that you have to be a much smarter bully here in New Jersey than you have to be there. If Christie allowed himself to get sucked into a situation like this, it would most likely be the beginning of the end of his political career, while Brownback will probably be Governor for as long as he wants to be or as long as his state's law allows. For good or ill, mostly ill, Christie and his people are too smart to allow that to happen.

by: Bertin Lefkovic @ Tue Nov 29, 2011 at 21:37:59 PM UTC

[ Parent ]