Congressman Scott DesJarlais
Last week, a Republican Congressman from Tennessee, Scott DesJarlais, held a town meeting. He’s a Tea Party guy. An 11-year-old Hispanic girl named Josie Molina, whose father was about to be deported, came to the microphone. She said, “I have papers, but I have a dad who’s undocumented. What can I do to have him stay with me?”
Desjarlais said, “This is a big, intimidating crowd, and I appreciate you coming forward and asking a question. But the answer still kind of remains the same, that we have laws and we need to follow those laws, and that’s where we’re at.”
Desjarlais is being criticized for an “uncaring” response. However, watching the video, I felt he handled it okay. It was a good, on-the-spot response. He’s got stupid views on some subjects and a terrible record of personal immorality. But in this instance, I don’t believe he was being insensitive.
However, what really disturbed me was the crowd’s reaction.
Here’s this courageous little girl who faces the prospect of having her father forcibly taken away, or of leaving her home, friends, school–her country–to be with him in a foreign land. She takes the risk of going before a person of power to seek help. And as the Congressman gives his answer as she returns to her seat amidst this unsympathetic crowd, the people around her whoop and cheer and applaud the Congressman’s answer.
“Yeah, put those wetbacks in their place!” they seemed to be saying.
“Take her daddy away!” is the sentiment Josie Molina would have heard.
It just struck me as very, very wrong. Turned my stomach, in fact. As one writer put it, “If there’s one place I wouldn’t want to be, it’s in front of a crowd that delights in the suffering of children.”
Would Jesus have sided with a child wanting to keep her family together, or with the crowd zealous about enforcing The Law?
Attitudes like this from Tea Party types is just another of the reasons I will no longer identify as a Republican. The Republican Party of my youth has been taken over by extremists.
