One of the legitimate marvels of the American political system is that regular old Americans can yell at our elected officials. It’s not a particularly nice thing to do, of course, but you’re not going to, say, get imprisoned for screaming at your governor in a Starbucks or interrupting your congressman at a county fair. It’s part of what elected officials have to deal with, in exchange for being given the power to pass laws and getting nice retirement benefits.
Over the past few weeks, we’ve seen a resurgence in the fine art of chewing out elected officials. The last time America was so enamored with the practice was in 2009 and 2010, during the heyday of the tea party. Members of Congress would hold town halls and people would show up to yell at them about how bad Obamacare was. Now, the situation is slightly different: Members of Congress are holding town halls and people are showing up to yell at them about how bad an Obamacare repeal would be. Well, that and calls for investigations into President Trump, as Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah) can attest.
On Tuesday, a number of elected officials held town halls and a number of constituents yelled at them. Clips of the yelling spread quickly online. Since one of the secondary joys of people yelling at elected officials is watching people yell at elected officials, we decided to make a little tool that facilitates that vicarious thrill.
Pick a politician on our YELL-O-MATIC™ and watch them get yelled at — by one person or many, recently or years ago. Have a video that we missed? By all means, share. Yelling is part of the American political system, one that should be embraced and savored.
As is schadenfreude.
