U.S. Congressman: Use Sexting To Get Out The Vote In November [Video]


Democrat Congressman James Clyburn of South Carolina suggested in a recent TV appearance that “sexting” might be a good way to mobilize voters for the upcoming November election.

An apparently technologically-challenged Clyburn made this interesting recommendation during an appearance on C-SPAN to promote his new memoir. Clyburn has represented his state’s 6th congressional district since 1993. He is the third-ranking Democrat in the U.S. of House Representatives behind Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and Minority Whip Steny Hoyer.

In responding to a caller who stressed the importance of voting in the aftermath of the Trayvon Martin and Michael Brown shootings, Rep. Clyburn had this to say:

Use the tools that we have. We’ve got great tools to communicate about everything else. We can, uh, text. Uh, what do we call it? Sexting. Let’s do some voting… organizing over the internet. We’ve got the tools. Let’s use them for a new massive movement that will make sure that we can have in November 2014 the kind of turnout at the polls that we had, uh, in 2012 in November.”

While it seems likely that the lawmaker got texting and sexting mixed up, perhaps Clyburn also forgot that it was sexting that spelled doom for the political career of fellow House Democrat Anthony Weiner, a.k.a. Carlos Danger, who was forced to resign his seat in Congress and later saw his campaign for New York City mayor implode.

The Wire political website noted that “Add Rep. James Clyburn (D-S.C.) to the list of elderly congressmen who get a bit confused talking about the lingo all the young people are using these days…Wait, sexting? That would be a novel, if somewhat awkward, way to increase voter turnout… First elected in 1992, Clyburn is one of three members of the senior House Democratic leadership who are over 70 years old, along with Nancy Pelosi (Calif.) and Steny Hoyer (Md.).”

The Daily Caller, which unearthed the clip from a Labor Day weekend broadcast, reports that the C-SPAN transcript of the video omitted the reference to sexting. Since the story was published, the satirical hashtag clyburnsexts has gained some traction on Twitter.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LBk0ExFB1IU

Although this must be a mere coincidence having nothing to do with political connections, President Obama appointed Rep. Clyburn’s daughter to the Federal Communications Commission in 2009.

[image credit: U.S. Department of Agriculture]

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