PRESIDENT BULLY

by Ruth A. Sheets

The American founders could not  have anticipated  the New Bully.  He has at his disposal resources they could not have imagined:  Twitter, teleprompters, instant communication, a gigantic military stationed all over the world, an enormous economy run by massive corporations:  banks, conglomerates with financial holdings larger than most countries of the world. 

They did understand hatred and distrust of immigrants, ignorant followers, bullying, bombast, lying about one’s opponents, insults and name calling. 

They did not anticipate a president who would cozy up to foreign leaders who had proven themselves anti-American while dismissing long-time allies.  They could not anticipate a president who dropped out of world-wide negotiated deals made under a previous administration because that president wasn’t white.     

The founders lived in a world ruled by kings and small-time leaders.  Conquering or defending with national armies is how one scored points and gained or lost territory.  The common people were pawns in this military show.  Companies and individuals traded with whomever they wanted to with an occasional nod from the leader.  

Two-and-a-half centuries on, Royalty has little power, though some influence.  Armies usually march off with some kind of cause, no matter that it is often a cause trumped up and usually has a bad outcome.  Most people today don’t  expect to be used as pawns or appreciate it either. 

In this new world, a bully can easily arise since he (nearly always he) can bluster and blow his stuff to huge audiences on television, radio, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, giant venues, and so many other places.  The new bully can target his message and attacks to just the right people, those who are angry, frustrated, afraid, feel ignored, but who don’t really understand exactly what they are experiencing.  They want to blame someone.  The new bully can give them people to blame and hate.  Who cares if his targets are not the actual source of their troubles.     No problem, create the lie and jam it home.

Another tactic is to shout a lot.  It is no longer necessary to shout with the new sound systems, but it works for the bully.  He can yell at the audience telling them in so many ways there is something wrong with them if they don’t see the world the way he does.  He gets live audiences chanting 3 or 4-word slogans that everyone can get into, even if they don’t make sense.  Of course, legal or not, the bully can keep people he does not like from his rallies, so the chants go on uninterrupted.
The new bully avoids the press when possible, stands in front of a noisy helicopter to make himself seem more powerful while being “interviewed,” even calls the work of excellent journalists “fake news” and blames them for keeping him from doing the “wonderful” things he wants to do for the people.

The new bully lies almost all the time, about almost everything, with no check.  His followers, like a religious cult, are totally OK with it, or they say “I wish he wouldn’t do that, but it’s for a good cause.”  Besides, the other side is doing it too. (usually not true, but, who’s counting?)
The new bully in power surrounds himself only with people who are totally loyal to him.  He will regularly test their loyalty.  He will make them do things for him that are on the edge of legality, sometimes going over the line.  They will lie for him, affirm anything he says and defend anything he does.  They will insult those he needs insulted.  In short, if they had any integrity they are expected to jettison it before coming into service, and they do.  If they are caught showing any, they are fired.  So, after a short time, no one around the new bully has an independent thought. 

As if that were not bad enough, he puts into positions of government authority, people who are completely incompetent, at least for the positions they are to enter.  The confirming body (Senate(, approves everyone even when they know the person should not have been nominated.  This means the bully will not be challenged over any of the undermining actions he takes to destroy the department, agency, or program they work for.

Threats are his best weapon.  He threatens duly elected officials either having incriminating information on them, obtained from whatever nefarious source he can get, or by primarying them.  That effectively removes them from among those who could challenge his actions or position in the future. 

There’s more!  The new bully uses his economic and military power to threaten anyone who gets in the way of his efforts.  It works best to bully poorer nations whose economies depend on trading with his country.  Order that country to do whatever you want, and usually, they will comply out of desperation.  When that is successful, the threats move to larger countries who are not as dependent.  When they don’t immediately comply, he moves ships and troops in with the obvious intent to do some military damage to their country:  their infrastructure, their economy, or create some other havoc. 

Anyone in his own country who dares to oppose him is treated to verbal abuse, sometimes interference by law enforcement and other organizations under the bully’s thumb.  The bully is usually racist, misogynistic, homophobic, and xenophobic.  He uses these stances to court other bullies, while he claims to be none of these.

The new bully calls opposition leaders names, gets his rally crowds to malign them, lies about them and their positions, even disparaging the cities they come from.  The bully will threaten to take away citizenship of true citizens and otherwise arbitrarily change the nation’s Constitution.

OK, you get it, I am talking about Donald Trump, however, he is not the only one.  The leaders of The Philippines, Russia, Brazil, India, Hungary, China, and Poland are also new bullies.  I suspect there are a bunch of others too.  They each were “elected” even if the popular vote was not with them.  They have enough of a following that they can do pretty much anything they want with impunity.  For example, in The Philippines, Mr. Duterte has been responsible for thousands of extra-judicial killings under the guise of controlling drugs.  Mr. Xi of China has imprisoned at least a million of its citizens in concentration “reeducation camps.” (A rose by any other name . .)  

It is clear that Mr. Trump and his cronies love the role he is playing and would like to extend it into the next decade.  In fact, they would like it if Mr. Trump never had to leave office at all, a bully they can control forever.

If there were a kid at a school with the children of any of Mr. Trump’s followers who demanded unconditional loyalty, asked the kids to lie for him, took their money and gave it to the well-off kids on the playground, lied to them all the time, pushed struggling kids out of the way, those parents would be at the school screaming and yelling that the bully be stopped.

Well, why aren’t they yelling now to stop Mr. Trump’s bullying?  Inquiring minds want to know.