Teabaggers Cheer When GOP Rep Tells Child That Her Father Will Be Deported
Rep.
Scott DesJarlais (R-Tenn.) told
an 11-year-old girl who spoke
out at a town hall meeting last week that her undocumented father should be
deported, saying "we need to follow" current immigration laws.
"Josie [Molina] took the mic and, with a trembling voice, said to
DesJarlais, "Mr. DesJarlais, I have papers but my daddy doesn't, what can you
do to make sure he can stay?"
Desjarlais: "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."
It seems that
"compassionate conservatism" is truly dead: Texas Republicans cheer
when Rick Perry sites his record number of executions and now Tennesseans cheer
when a little girl's pleas for help in keeping her father are rebuffed by an
adulterous doctor-politician.
"God Has Forgiven Me" - The New Mantra Of Compassionate
Conservatism?
The district Desjarlais represents is often described as "deeply
conservative." So conservative, in fact, that rather than have a Democrat
Representative, they voted overwhelmingly for Desjarlais in the past election.
DesJarlais,
who practiced medicine before going to Congress, easily
won a second term in
Tennessee's conservative 4th District despite previous revelations that he once
urged a patient with whom he was having an affair to get an abortion.
So conservative, the "family values" crowd voted for possibly the
country's biggest hypocrite: he ran on an anti-abortion platform among other
things. So conservative that he was given a virtual pass from his fellow
Republican Tennesseans concerning his unethical practices: this year he was
fined a monumental $500 by Tennessee medical authorities (for two
doctor-patient indiscretions out of the eight which were revealed in court
testimony). Compassionate Conservatism was at an all-time high in Tennessee -
especially when Desjarlais said that God had absolved him of all his
sins.
Even of the allegations of spousal abuse. Even of the allegations of mental
instability.
After All, It's Tennessee
The Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition posted almost immediately about Desjarlais' cavalier (read: heartless) response to Josie Molina:
"Josie Molina is one brave 11-year-old. She stood in front of over 200 people and asked Representative Scott DesJarlais what could be done to prevent her father from being deported. As Josie fights to keep her family together, Desjarlais and other obstructionist politicians refuse to fix an immigration system that separates over 1,000 families a day."
Josie Molina may have become a "poster child" for the
immigration reform movement, but living in Tennessee may pose problems for her:
while groups like the TIRRC exist, they aid all sorts of immigrants - including
Muslims, and Islamophobia is rampant in the "Volunteer" state. Josie
is Hispanic: same difference to Teabagger Tennesseans. The whoops and cheers of
the town hall meeting underscored the hostility Josie faces: she is already
undergoing therapy because of the trauma of her family situation, but she may
undergo further alienation from neighbors and other school children.
No father, no life. And that's the way some people would have it for Josie.
"Compassionate Conservatism." Did it ever really exist at all?
While liberals laughed at George Bush's seeming oxymoron, some people took the
phrase to heart: FreeRepublic.com scornfully lists the
Republicans voting for immigration reform (Marco
Rubio is called a "weak-minded fool."). And with a party struggling
to "reach out to minorities", a show of compassion might be just the
ticket. Hard Right critics of immigration reform, however, portray adherents as
anti-conservative, un-American bleeding heart liberals in disguise.
All the things that Scott Desjarlais certainly are not: not to Teabagger
Tennesseans, not to Josie Molina.
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