Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi responded to the president’s Tuesday night address with a grim rebuttal that seemed to indicate there’s no end in sight for the government shutdown that’s filling our national parks with shit, forcing thousands of federal employees to work without pay, and leading scores of TSA employees to call out of the job. The congressional leaders’ stern side-by-side gazes—directed at Republicans holding the country hostage for $6 billion to fund a wall they probably don’t even want—have been turned into a meme, painting them as frustrated parents trying to deal with a difficult child. Schumer’s oblique criticism of Trump in the address—”we don’t govern by temper tantrum”—really drives the dad vibes home.
For the artistically-inclined denizens of Twitter, Schumer and Pelosi apparently reminded them of the OG disgruntled parents: the farmers in Grant Wood’s 1930 masterpiece American Gothic.
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From there, as they are wont to do on Twitter, things got super weird. For whatever reason, the pair drew comparisons to the creepy twins from The Shining, along with whatever the hell this is.
In response to Trump’s Game of Thrones-themed poster last week, Schumer tweeted, “Enough with the memes. Just quit hurting innocent people and re-open the government.” A dad-as-hell response? Certainly. But maybe that’s what we need to deal with a tantrum that has devastating costs for government workers and taxpayers alike.
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