I post this video both infuriated and frustrated. The fury I feel is for the brave little girl who stood up and asked a difficult and personally painful question in a public form. She deserved empathy and understanding form her Congressman, regardless of the politics surrounding the immigration issue.
The frustration I feel is for the Republican Party writ large which appears to be run by rank amateurs at this point. Of course, this is what you can expect when you turn your party leadership over to a bunch of third-rate demagogues. It's an open secret that the leadership of the Republican Party would happily deport every Latino in the country (save, of course, for the ones they employ) while converting the US/Mexican border into a Western Hemisphere version of the Korean DMZ if they thought they could get away with it but to so casually dismiss the plea of a frightened child to the whoops and cheers of a crowd of adults?
Politics is about more than just issues and laws; it's about giving people a connection to their government and the institutions and parties that help run it. Even rejecting the Dream Act, even advocating full-throttle for border militarization and voicing a full-throated objection to immigration amnesty, it's possible to tell a child that the situation she's going through is scary and sad and no fault of her own and it's possible to provide her -- not her father, but her -- with whatever support and assistance her government can offer.
Instead, Rep Scott DesJarlais chose party and position over basic human decency and the crowd rewarded him with cheers.
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