Seeing President Barack Obama support an act that allows indefinite detention of terrorism suspects, including Americans, was the last straw for artist Jason Reed.
Obama’s unfaltering support of the National Defense Authorization Act, which he signed into law on New Year’s Eve 2011, was the tipping point that inspired Mirack-Obamney, a new Tumblr blog featuring Frankenstein-like images of Obama and Mitt Romney’s face.
“That removed any illusion of difference between Republicans and Democrats,” Reed told the Daily Dot. “They are all corporate-owned sellouts. I want to show the mindless cheerleaders on both sides that ‘their guy’ is in fact, anything but, and that they don’t have to choose between the lesser of two evils.”
The blog taps into a growing wave of political ambivalence and disenchantment around the country using memes, comics and simple text posts. Though the parties platforms greatly differ on ways to improve the economy, address the decade long war overseas and how to keep Americans healthy, Reed believes their similarities are much greater than their differences.
The goal isn’t to turn people off to politics, Reed said. Instead, he hopes people educate themselves on third-party candidates.
With the election quickly approaching, Reed hopes to keep Mirack-Obamney and MittRomneyRuining stocked with fresh content.
“I’m trying to find some good examples of how their campaign funding comes from the same sources. I want to do a ‘who said it’ quiz, with quotes from each,” Reed added. “It will be near impossible to tell them apart.”
All images via Mirack-Obamney