[Idiom] getting enthusiastic about a hot topic

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borhane

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Hi,
Is there an idiom that means that the public are debating and arguing with enthusiasm over a hot topic?
Thank you in advance
 

Raymott

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Hi,
Is there an idiom that means that the public are debating and arguing with enthusiasm over a hot topic?
Thank you in advance
If it's something not serious, you can say, "It has caught the public's imagination". You could say that about a movie star's antics, or UFO reports, or the discovery of a missing link fossil, etc. but not for something seriously political or social.
 

borhane

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Unfortunately I need it in a political context.
 

probus

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Well there is such an idiom, but unfortunately it's not really English. We have borrowed it from the French. But here in Canada, at least, it is commonly used:
Cause célèbre

I suspect it is not much used in the rest of the English speaking world. If using it in English, I would of course omit the accents.
 

Tdol

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If something is a hot topic, people are debating/discussing it- hot topic is enough IMO.
 

freezeframe

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Well there is such an idiom, but unfortunately it's not really English. We have borrowed it from the French. But here in Canada, at least, it is commonly used:
Cause célèbre

I suspect it is not much used in the rest of the English speaking world. If using it in English, I would of course omit the accents.

Good phrase but not restricted to politics. Could be anything.
 

JTRiff

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Well, there's a political football, meaning a hot topic that's being passed around.
The buzz in Washington is...

The CNN page is called 'Political Hot Topics.'
 

freezeframe

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Hot button issue

Heavily politicized issues are often called "hot button issues" because almost any position taken is sure to please one group of people and offend another.
 
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