With Impeachment hearings rapidly unfolding I request that we step back to reflect on where all this is taking us. This cult of personality and bullying being defended over the rule of law and decency has no upside for our systems of governance and demeans the faint hope of our finding common ground.
Why are we failing to check a man who boldly claims he is above the law, claims that he could shoot someone with impunity, brags about his sexual harassment prowess, openly invites foreign governments to meddle in elections, belittles people at will, incites violence and manages staff in a manner which would get him fired at just about any U.S. firm?
The use of intimidation to amass & preserve power is not new. We know that unchecked, bullying spreads and rapidly degrades a social order. Bullies divide, they don’t know how to unite. Can we still protect the norms of civility which are vital to our system of governance from the obvious tactics of a bully? For the past few years, it appears that we are not so courageous. We still can if we choose to recognize and call out these bullying behaviors as unacceptable. This will not change the bully much. It will diminish the impact of bullying. It shouldn’t take a psychotherapist to read that calls for “loyalty” are a signal to capitulate to power instead of one’s conscience, that quashing dissent through intimidation, threats of retaliation, and inciting violence must be seen as undermining the rule of law. Ignoring these elevates the cult of the bully who if not confronted grows more powerful. Can we prevent bullying from becoming a norm with the same bravery that #MeToo confronted sexual harassment? Can we meet it with the brave non-violent tactics which ordinary people did during the Civil Rights era of the 1960s?
I fear that bullying has worked and made us fearful of exercising our rights and protecting people and our institutions—including civil servants, and the media. Americans are predisposed to check the overreach of government. Can they muster the same umbrage when the overreach is from an individual who is ravaging the government from the inside? It is also a sign of the power of the bully to make people disbelieve in themselves and to create an alternative version of the truth.
This is strategically weakening us. The Russians wanted to sew discontent and division through their efforts in the 2016 election. The Muller Report identified 10 separate instances where the president obstructed justice in the Russian investigation. He has since obstructed Congress during these hearings and then has been allowed to claim to be “exonerated” by both processes in spite of the evidence. We have been cowed. Those in the media who encourage these fictions, encourage conspiracy thinking and give credence to radical ideas from what was recently sidelined as the rumblings of fringe groups with fringe attitudes. Through this exchange of the normal for the radical, we are all encouraging the bully. It has become a feedback loop that is like the edge of a black hole.
How a nation of immigrants so easily allows a bully to characterize immigrants as the enemy, while encouraging nativists and spreading fear and hatred is beyond sense. Great leaders have always called upon our commonality, our common humanity, the ideals which bind us. Has it been too long since we have seen such an authentic leader? The random belittling of world leaders, of those enmeshed in the challenges of the day are only a tactic of a bully. They are not a strategy that benefits anyone else, that is the whole of us. This is not how foreign or domestic policy is supposed to be exercised. It is especially corrosive coming from the top, eroding the fine people and institutions created to protect us. Calling those people traitors, sidelining this as a “deep state” conveniently fits a bullying pattern, benefitting no common good, only the power of one. While all of this may appear to favor one side of the political spectrum in the near term, it is devastatingly destructive in the long term. Putin must be very pleased with how easy it has been to use this president, and the American people against each other to win back the Cold War and undermine our institutions and our trust in ourselves from the inside, and from the top. It has opened some barn doors that will be increasingly difficult to shut the longer we accept this condition.
The evidence of bullying has amassed so quickly it is dizzying to try to catalog. It defies the scope of daily coverage. It has outsized and outpaced outrage. Open disagreement and debate have always been a hallmark of our democracy. We disagree, but don’t question each other’s legitimacy.
Questioning another’s legitimacy is a step toward inciting violence. First, there was “lock her up,” then, “punch that protestor” which is not a far leap from “shoot my opponent.” This is not a “fake” orchestrated pro-wrestling match, this is how leadership is choosing to conduct business. The bully is not afraid of intimidation or violence. He thrives on it. While not all gun violence in America can be laid at the feet of this bully much else can. The Guardian in August of 2019 made an exhaustive list “Dozens of supporters of Donald Trump have Carried Out or Threatened Acts of Violence. Here, the Guardian Lists Them All.” At political rallies, the president has called mainstream Media “the enemy of the people,” a term originated by Joseph Stalin. When was the last time you heard that kind of language on the campaign trail? Really? We tend to think of our nation as having a history of protecting individuals and entire countries from bullies. There is a term for that—it is called justice. For many years, most of our foreign policy strove to support those who supported our values– democracy, free speech, human rights. Yes, that was sometimes perverted, complicated or failed– but it was what we espoused at face value. No more. Today all foreign policy from the bully is transactional. Short term. Do you support ME. Look through the veil and domestic policy is looking more that way with every rally. Who holds “rallies” instead of fireside chats and press conferences as President? A bully.
At a basic human level, we agree domestically that ‘might does not make right.’ Don’t we?
This situation should be a wake-up call. Not only do the administration and its’ apologists fail to call out hate crimes and hate groups in the United States, encourage a culture of bullying, they actively undermine our very concept of the common truth. There isn’t much distinction between daily press conference decorum, random tweeting or engaging in politics. By accepting a president who has no interest in being Presidential or even pretending to represent the best interest of the country as a whole, we are confirming that it is ok to be constantly political, constantly in bully-mode. At political rallies, the president has called mainstream Media “the enemy of the people,” a term originated by Joseph Stalin. He points at them, dehumanizes them, derisively calls them “fake media” and taunts them as those looking on cheer. This is why a bully loves a rally instead of a press conference. This kind of singling out of any group, delegitimizing it in the spirit in which it is being done should make any American’s stomach churn. Undermining the public believe in the media, or even in the idea of truth outside what the bully says should be recognized for the banana republic, aspiring dictator stuff that it is. The president seems to admire dictators of countries which do not have press that is free to criticize. He really likes the part of Media that seems to fall all over itself now to protect him. It is ominous how both foreign and domestic attacks on reporters have been skimmed over. Media is a messy and diverse group, but it is a canary in the coal mine and an effective tool to counter excessive power.
Perhaps the most insidious aspect of bullying is its contagion. Those on the side of the bully see it and are emboldened as if a right to carry on bullying has been bestowed on them. Worse, as cancer spreads outside the confines of “the swamp,” to our cities, town halls, school board meetings, and other gatherings of good, decent honest people, the people at these gatherings have suddenly become infected by what they now see as OK and accepted in society. Parents bully coaches, their kids bully other kids, and we end up in town council meetings putting together ‘civility rules of order’ to keep them from becoming violent and unruly.
Make no mistake, cumulatively, leaving any bully unchecked justifies institutional bullying, and threatens the very structures established to protect us through the Constitution. It is contributing to our manically politicized culture and is steering us down a road to violence and autocracy. Our lack of outrage is visibly undermining a democratic system governed by the rule of law.
No superheroes will step into this to save us from what we allow to happen. It may be that our wish for larger than life characters have brought us to where we are unmoved by committed civil servants standing up to do what’s right – even as our president cannot stop himself from live-time Tweets trying to intimidate them.
The truth is that many of our most respected and powerful leaders in all branches of government are afraid of an erratic and vindictive leader with a narcissistic injury who is damaging every institution and norm within reach, even his own administration, even those who have given or dedicated their lives in patriotic duty who have sworn to duty outside of politics.
It can only further degrade the trust built by local leaders seeking to solve local issues in a non-partisan manner, through the process, relying on non-partisan civic professionals who work without fanfare or acclaim.
How much will we sacrifice to protect a bully?
