Recently, Speaker of the House Paul Ryan (R-WI) took an intern selfie with the Republican Party’s Capitol Hill interns. What began as an effort to show the bright future of the party turned into something we’re sure Ryan wasn’t expecting.
It was a typical shoot self in foot moment. Did Ryan really not notice that he was photographing a room full of white faces? He must be oblivious to what’s going on outside his head.
There’s speculation that there may be an Asian person and a black man towards the back. But, it’s easy to see why this selfie got quite a lot of attention on social media. The Republican Party is not even close to representing America. Commenters were quick to notice.
The Response
In striking contrast, Rep. E.B. Johnson (D-TX) organized the Democratic Capitol Hill interns for their own intern selfie that’s much more representative of the country.
Now that’s something we can bet our future on. Rep. Johnson called out Ryan in her tweet, highlighting the contrast. In one picture, the Democratic interns showed all we need to know about the difference between these two political parties.
A congress full of old white men is not going to cut it for much longer. This group of young people shows us the opportunity for a truly great America to come.
My intern Audra Jackson led Democratic Interns in their own selfie 2day showing #DemInternDiversity #DemInternSelfie pic.twitter.com/83UcIOKS5s
— US Rep E.B.Johnson (@RepEBJ) July 19, 2016
Image via Twitter
As Albert Einstein once explained:
“Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.”
Can we really expect to send the same demographic to Congress and expect them to come up with laws and legislation that represent us all? Here’s to hoping the Democratic interns will make it all the way to Congress as representatives and delegates.
The Young Turk’s provide a commentary of Ryan’s selfie, pointing out that Republicans seem to believe that there’s no need to reach out to minority groups to encourage them to join the party. In two pictures, if you still had any doubts, it becomes more than clear that the Republican Party is racist and not worried in the least about how it comes across.
Featured image via Gage Skidmore, available under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported license.