Oh look! The Government thinks it’s Buzzfeed!
Apparently, the GOP is trying to demonstrate that they are hip to what the young people are into these days by issuing a press release regarding the “Michael Davis, Jr., and Danny Oliver in Honor of State and Local Law Enforcement Act”– an aggressive anti-immigration bill, in the manner of a Buzzfeed post. Like, with GIFs and everything.
9. By allowing hundreds of thousands of local law enforcement officers to enforce our immigration laws, we keep immigration enforcement up and operating, even when a president tries to unlawfully refuse to enforce our laws.
Photo by Ben A. Pruchnie/Getty Images
Vox reports that the bill itself, passed by the House Judiciary Committee this week, is beyond draconian and doesn’t really have a serious chance of becoming a law. It would essentially be the closest we’ve ever come to mass deportation, splitting up families across the country and making it a federal offense to be in the United States without papers, whereas now, it is only a civil offense. It would basically require any undocumented immigrant who comes into contact with United States law enforcement to be thrown into the deportation queue. Also, it would allow law enforcement officials to hold undocumented immigrants in jail without just cause, because being here was a federal crime in and of itself.
It’s really quite extreme–which is why bills of this kind have failed in the past, and have often even been criticized by members of the Republican Party for going too far.
Given that this bill is named for two law enforcement officials who were killed by undocumented immigrants, and that those who support it believe it is a measure of public safety–one would like to think they would take it seriously enough to not punctuate it with something like this:
I just have to say. It’s not that I am surprised that the GOP is trying to pass this bill. It’s hardly anything new to me that conservatives don’t like immigrants, because that’s been a thing for a hundred years, dating back to when my people were coming on over and they were insisting they were all swarthy criminals hell bent on ruining their precious American way of life.
Source: the frisky
The awkward thing here is that I am pretty sure everyone they used a GIF of, other than Britney Spears, is not even a Republican.
I mean, Allison Brie, Emma Stone and Jennifer Lawrence are outspoken liberals, Kirsten Dunst voted for Kerry and Obama, Anna Camp’s mother works for the Democratic Party, and although Kristen Wiig isn’t especially politically outspoken, she did go to my high school (where we did not have many Republicans, or any that I knew of–they were all in Pittsford!) and judging by the few people we have in common, I feel it is pretty likely that she is not rabidly anti-immigration. Like, at the very least, it would be a little less sad if they could actually find GIFs of people who would actually agree with their views on this. Still not at all dignified, but still, perhaps less intrinsically sad.
It is interesting, however, that they primarily used GIFs of women. I wonder if this was meant to specifically target women, who on the whole are more likely to oppose legislation this harsh, particularly if it is likely to break up millions of families?
I mean. I get it. Buzzfeed is a very popular website! The Republican party would like to be popular, especially among the hip young readers of sites like Buzzfeed. They’re trying to figure out a way to say “Hey, we can be hip and with it while still being completely terrified of those dang fereners (and the gays and the black people in hoodies and sluts on the pill having extramarital sex!)” But like, this is not it.
Seriously, GOP. Even Buzzfeed tries to be serious when it comes to serious issues. They hire serious journalists to balance out all the celebrity GIFs and cat pictures. What that says to the “hip young people” that you’re trying to reach is “Here! We think you’re stupid! We assume you can be sold on mass deportation if we just jazz it up with a GIF of ‘The Little Mermaid!’”–and at the end of the day, that’s really insulting.
Original by Robyn Pennacchia
