Nebraska Legislature as reality TV, featuring filibuster and culture war drama
WJXT
LINCOLN, Neb. Mention televised legislative debates, and what may come to mind are stuffy, policy-wonk discussions broadcast by C-SPAN. This year's Nebraska Legislature was more like a reality TV show, with culture-war rhetoric, open hostility among lawmakers, name-calling, yelling and more.
Many Nebraskans couldn't get enough of it.
It was addictive, said Jamie Bonkiewicz, 41, of Omaha. If I wasnt there, I was streaming it every day, just to hear what would come out of those senators mouths.
Watching on television, streaming on computers and phones, following along in their cars, Nebraskans seemed captivated by what was easily one of the body's most acrimonious sessions on record.
Watching the Nebraska Legislature is like watching the worst train wreck that wont end and the hits just keep coming, Megan Moslander of Omaha tweeted when lawmakers triggered a constitutional challenge by combining restrictions on abortion and trangender health care into a single bill.
