By David Bozeman — So, the newspaper that broke the Watergate scandal is reduced to this?
The Washington Post, apparently in panic mode over Mitt Romney’s climbing poll numbers, ran a Page 1 expose of the former governor’s alleged bullying nearly fifty years ago. Grab your smelling salts, everyone and stop the presses!
The concept of bullying now dominates public discourse — and rightly so — due to its increase via social networking sites and numerous instances of children committing suicide. But how long before the word indicts even benign resistance to the liberal agenda?
Romney’s misconduct matters, according to MSNBC and other outlets, because it speaks to character, unlike young Barack Obama’s drug use that never constituted a pattern of behavior. It goes something like this: It is not that far a stretch from guiding a blind classmate into a wall and, as a CEO, cutting jobs and robbing from the poor folks, not unlike the evil Mr. Potter in It’s a Wonderful Life.
Of course, it makes sense only if you accept the broad premises and drama-queen inclinations of conventional dialogue.
Which, unfortunately, far too many people do. The liberal standard of persuasion, by way of entertainment and the media, is emotion. Conservatives rigidly urge Americans to rely on themselves when possible, thus debating liberals, who feign soap-diva hysterics at the slightest suggestion that their economic policies bear the hint of socialism, is like boxing with a marshmallow. We’re always Mr. Potter, they’re always George Bailey (played by the great Jimmy Stewart, a Republican, by the way).
Yet the real bullies in America exist primarily in government and primarily on the left. One could fill volumes recounting liberal Democrats kicking sand at the little people to gain and maintain power. For example, how about Bill Clinton’s bimbo-eruptions unit, put in place to discredit Paula Jones and other trailer-park gold-diggers? How about the ceaseless personal attacks on Sarah Palin and her family? And don’t forget the recent attacks on stay-at-home mom Ann Romney (Notice a pattern here? Now tell me again which party is at war with women.)
Government, just by its nature, resembles a schoolyard bully, exerting its power through judicial fiat, often nullifying the will of the people, and then there are unelected bureaucrats, regulators and executive orders — some compatible with liberty, many not.
Liberalism, through the force of the state, substitutes itself for family, community and the voluntary exchanges of the free market. Obamacare, for instance, was foisted on the American people despite overwhelming resistance. Though forever forcing a square peg into a round hole, they have masterfully applied the techniques of the schoolroom bully, while posing as the saddest-eyed Dickensian orphan.
In the last three years, the Obama Administration has boasted enough bullies to terrorize a reform-school courtyard. A top EPA official, Al Armendariz, recently resigned when his comments illustrating enforcement of anti-pollution laws were publicized: “It’s kind of like how Romans used to conquer villages in the Mediterranean — they’d go into a little Turkish town and they’d find the first five guys they saw and they’d crucify them.”
Countless others remain, but Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius merits a special mention. According to various news sources, the rambling, indecipherable Obamacare law mentions the words “the secretary shall” at least 700 times.
Whenever legislatures attempt to ban school bake sales, you’ll more likely than not find liberal bullies at work. Whenever lemonade stands are regulated, you know where to look. Whenever light bulbs and plastic trash bags are yanked out of the hands of the common folks, you’ll find the strong arm of a liberal bully.
The actions of a young Mitt Romney, if proven true, deserve rebuke. But for the sake of sanity and proportion, it is the bullies of the state, primarily of the liberal persuasion, who deserve expulsion from public life. Indeed, what Mitt allegedly did with the blind guy and the wall, liberalism has been doing to America for a hundred years and counting.
David Bozeman, former Libertarian Party Chairman, is a Liberty Features Syndicated writer.
