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Twitter Loves Politician Memes
“Our Politicians had never been so authentic, so linked arm in arm with the common people. “My favorite meat is hot dog, by the way,” one told us. “That is my favorite meat. My second favorite meat is hamburger. And everyone says, oh don’t you prefer steak. Its like, I know steaks are great, but I like hot dog best, and I like hamburger next best.” And we shivered with recognition, and a vague vote grew in our hands, for we too liked hot dog best, and hamburger next best. We were the common people, on whom it all rested, and we lived in diners, and we went to church at the gas station, and our mother was a dirty mattress in the front yard, and we liked, God damnit, hot dog best.” – Patricia Lockwood in Why is No One Talking About This.
In 2018, the following quote was uttered and promptly took over the Twittersphere. “My favorite meat is hot dog, by the way. That is my favorite meat. My second favorite meat is hamburger. And everyone says, oh don’t you prefer steak? It’s like, I know steaks are great but I like hot dog best and I like hamburger next best.” If your best guess as to who stated this is an ET like outer space creature, then you might not be far off from the true culprit, Mitt Romney. Many believe it was the former presidential candidate’s, who was pegged with a net worth of $250 million during his 2012 race (Paiella, 2018), attempt at relating to us “common folk.” Of course, Romney’s clumsy plan to portray himself as middle-class beer, drinking, hot dog eating, (presumable) baseball fan, instead became a twitter meme of how strange and potentially out of touch the massively wealthy career politician was. This quote was utilized in Patricia Lockwood’s book, Why is No One Talking About This? as a representation of the power of twitter virality, especially when it comes to politicians. Instead of me describing them I would like to link a few of my favorite’s tweets below:
Of course, Romney is not alone among class of politicians blundering publicity stunts to seem more relatable. See below for NYC Mayor Bill De Blasio attempting to look “hip” at a press conference while he cheers on his hometown Brooklyn Nets:
Yet, another famous twitter trend is “politicians eating corn dogs” (amongst other things) which generally happens at the Iowa State fair around the time of the Iowa caucuses, which can make or break a candidates run as the first primary contest. Linked below is one example, and an entire article dedicated to the importance of the corn dogs (and other fair staples) in the scheme of a political career.
The Politics of Eating Corn Dogs at the Iowa State Fair – Eater
References
G. Paiella, “Mitt Romney: ‘my favorite meat is hot dog’,” The Cut, 04-May-2018. [Online]. Available: https://www.thecut.com/2018/05/mitt-romney-favorite-meat-hot-dog.html. [Accessed: 25-Oct-2021].