Civility of a Bully

By Tom Rhodes, 11/27/2013

There is lots of talk today about how uncivil politics in America has become. How the hate and uncompromising attitudes between politicians is hurting the country. That's crap, compared to the past today's congressmen and politicians are models of etiquette and decorum.

In 1856 Senator Sumner delivered a speech denouncing a political position and not only liabled Senator Brooks' home state, but publically mocked his relatives. In General Senator Sumner was bullying all those who didn't agree with him. Two days later Senator Brooks confronted Sumner on the senate floor, and before their conversation was over, Brooks, in a frenzy, beat Sumner over the head at least 30 times with a gold-headed cane. Sumner, his legs trapped under the bolted-down desk, finally wrenched it loose from the floor and collapsed with his head covered with blood. Obviously today's ranting and raving is civilized in comparison. What Senator Brooks did was wrong, but is the commonly observed over reaction of the victim of relentless bullying.

Of course that uncivil behavior by congress reflected the mood of the nation at the time and less than a decade later we had some civil unrest in an event that is officially known as The War Between the States.

The Civil War was preceded by politicians who quit debating ideas and principles, and instead resorted to ad hominem attacks and vilified their opponents, dehumanizing and bullying them. Today we see those supporting statism and tyranny resorting to the same tactics. Statists are using bullying not discussion to attempt to silence their opponents. One of the many ways this is evidenced is their resorting to labeling and name calling those who have honest rational differences with the president as racists, in an attempt to silence differing views. If you've ever been bullied as a kid you know there are only three ways to deal with a bully: move away and distance yourself so that he has no influence over your; physically stand up to him and fight, win or lose make bullying you so painful that the bully goes hunting someplace else; or submit to the bully.

If you submit, the bully always takes more until you have nothing worth taking and he goes on to better pickings, or you are a virtual slave until you move away, so submitting although not confrontational is only good for the bully, and reinforces the behavior. Moving away from a bully may not be possible, and even if successful results in emboldening the bully because his tactics were successful.

The option I didn't mention is the current statist dogma taught to children, to tell some adult and the people in charge will protect you. If you've ever been bullied you know that this is a laughable solution and only results in more bullying. Adults can't watch you 24/7 and the bully will get even and make things far worse. The reality is that the people in charge have ZERO accountability to protect any individual, nor obligation to protect any individual. On larger scales the Supreme Court has ruled multiple times that police and government have no legal obligation to protect anybody. Ask anybody who's been attacked after seeking government protection and getting a "restraining order" on the person threatening them. The truth is that only you are responsible for you and your family's security, PERIOD! If you don't deal with the bully, he will continue to bully you.

The one and absolutely most effective way to deal with a bully is to stand up to him and make it so painful that he quits bullying you. Even if you lose the fight, if you inflict enough pain, the bully either quits completely or reverts to much less severe actions. When a bully pushes too far and you end up with a kid going berserk and an abrupt vicious violent fight. Bullies pick on the weak, they are generally cowards, and work on the premise that might makes right.

The same can be said for our statist government. It picks on small businesses not strong enough to stand up to it, granting exceptions to their bullying to big corporations and unions who are so strong it's too costly to fight. The same for treatment of individuals, they keep taking more and more using the threat of force to all those who have something to take, while avoiding the few strong enough to fight back.

Today we see record numbers of people exiting the country, an effective means of distancing yourself from a bully.

Today we see people purposefully reducing their income to a point that they are no longer worth the bullies effort.

Today most people meekly give the bully our lunch money rather that get beat up. As our Declaration of Independence notes, " all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable."

Today we see the bully being bought off so he goes looking somewhere else, just look at the number of congressional family members working for as lobbyists. Remember Joe Biden saying he was going to go after and investigate Video Gaming Industry in the aftermath of Sandy Hook. You don't hear much about that anymore, could it have anything to do with the massive increase in lobby dollars spent by the Video Game Industry since then. The mere threat of "investigation" and doing something about the Video Game Industry lead to a massive increase in their lobbying efforts. Obviously they don't even have to create laws to extort money from big business, the mere threat of laws is enough to line their coffers.

The fact is we as a people now must treat our government like a bully. Cheating on your taxes is now viewed the same as hiding some of your lunch money in your sock so the bully doesn't find it. The rule of law is dead, making friends with the bully means you get to get away with stuff the uncool kids can't. It worked for BP who waved a mere $20B at the president and the government then picked up the tab for trillions of dollars of damage caused by the Gulf Oil Spill.

Let's hope the bully, that is now our statist government, doesn't push much harder and rejects the tactics of Senator Sumner, the result could end up the same. The people of America are like the fat kid in this now famous video, at some point we will get fed up.



Although Americans are "more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security."

Ask King George what happened when the liberty loving people of former colonies get fed up with his bullying.