Twitter users are roasting a progressive Democrat for the length of his “thirst strike.”
On Tuesday, Rep. Greg Casar, a congressman from Texas, went on a “thirst strike” at the Capitol, as a way to push for federal heat safety regulations. His strike lasted a little over eight hours.
Proud of his accomplishment, Casar retweeted a post from journalist Bryan Metzger, announcing the news that the congressman was ending his strike after eight hours.
Rep. @GregCasar ends his thirst strike after over 8 hours without food or water on the House steps pic.twitter.com/f2gUU4g41j
— bryan metzger (@metzgov) July 25, 2023
The congressman may have thought that this was impressive, but Twitter users were not so impressed.
Casar quickly found himself the subject of jokes on Twitter, as many people mocked him for abstaining from water for merely eight hours, something almost everyone can do.
So basically he just proved you don’t need water breaks
— SECSooner_Life (@Sooner_kyle7) July 26, 2023
Wow. Incredible. Eight hours without food? I have never seen this kind of heroism in my life. https://t.co/1Xbyetotz3
— Matt Walsh (@MattWalshBlog) July 26, 2023
Wow. 8 hours without food or water. He must be some kind of freak of nature!
— kelly (@SouthTexasKelly) July 26, 2023
One Twitter user pointed out that this was merely another example of a politician looking for attention, writing “Only a politician would expect praise and a press conference for doing what the rest of us do every day.”
Only a politician would expect praise and a press conference for doing what the rest of us do every day.
— ???????????????? ???????? ???????????? ???????????????? (@txsalth2o) July 26, 2023
It’s not entirely clear what Casar was hoping to accomplish with this gesture, or what exactly he was thinking the reaction to be. Eight hours is not much time to go without water, almost everyone has done that at some point in their lives.
Granted, if you are doing strenuous manual labor in the hot summer sun of a place like Texas or Arizona, you probably cannot go eight hours without water, you really should be drinking frequently.
But Casar is not doing manual labor in the hot sun, he is in Washington, D.C. in the air-conditioned rooms of the Capitol. Provided that he drank enough water beforehand, this really should not have been a challenge for him.
There are people who go days or even a week without eating on a hunger strike. Casar’s thirst strike is really nothing notable.
Frankly, all he did was prove that we do not need to take water breaks during our work day. He went almost the entire workday without water, and he appeared to be just fine.
This is just a fruitless and very confusing political stunt.
