If contemporary American politics encourages voters to choose between black and white at the cost of gray areas, then modern political campaigns force staffers to preemptively do the same. For example, the newly-updated design for Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz’s webpage dedicated to the Second Amendment. The whole website doesn’t really stand out — engraved shotgun raffle notwithstanding — but this baby packs a visceral, visual punch now that President Barack Obama has revealed new gun control measures.
The new webpage, which didn’t pop up until during Obama’s press conference on Tuesday, features the president wearing what looks like police S.W.A.T. or paramilitary gear. He’s also standing in front of a much larger portrait of his unsmiling face, which seems nice. Oh yeah, and the words “OBAMA WANTS YOUR GUNS” are listed in bold off to the left. Presumably, if you “SUPPORT THE PROTECTION OF YOUR SECOND AMENDMENT RIGHTS,” then you should enter your information into the form. That way you’ll be “in the know” about whether or not the White House is coming to take your weapons.
Meanwhile, several media professionals and journalists took to Twitter to respond to Cruz’s ploy for campaign contributions, votes or both:
https://twitter.com/BrianMontopoli/status/684459734112563201
https://twitter.com/jesseberney/status/684448686844280833
Others expressed genuine concern with Cruz’s apparent message:
https://twitter.com/rembert/status/684458556813406208
https://twitter.com/7im/status/684446095284436992
While the rest did their best to call the junior Texas senator out for what he was really doing:
https://twitter.com/darth/status/684451213442703360
https://twitter.com/thefarmerjones/status/684459186420346881
https://twitter.com/BuzzFeedAndrew/status/684443976208891904