By Ruth A. Sheets
Recently, I read a piece online about Republican bullying. I have considered this theme in the past, but still, few in power have been willing to do anything to stop the Republican attempts to bully our government, its officials, and anyone in the way, and their Project 2025 is a 900+-page guide to bullying the American people.
I like the bullying analogy because it certainly feels like we all are being bullied by a group of people in power and/or with a whole lot of money, through the various media. While addressing us, they pretend to be our friends, to be working for us, to give us just what we want, while having no intention of taking us into account at all.
In addition to their media and social media presence, The bullies show up at rallies, gatherings of groups of the discontented, and wherever they can tap into the frustration people are feeling and redirect those negative feelings onto groups the bully does not like: LGBTQ+ persons, women, teens, people of color, unions, teachers, etc. The bullies select those seen as weak and ripe for attack, then bully their friends in power into passing laws that will harm those people.
There are numerous political bullies active in the United States today, mostly, but not entirely white men. Among the most active:
- the super-rich like Elon Musk and Rupert Murdoch, and many others who bully through their massive donations to political dark money groups and campaigns for candidates who are only running on the Republican ticket because they are easily manipulated, inexperienced, and often ignorant of what it means to serve in the role they are seeking (or rather to serve at all – they prefer to be served). I guess they are after the power and money the job provides, not salary, of course, but the prominence, insider trading, and other “perks” that will come their way (plus jobs with hedge funds and other huge money-making operations) when they leave office.
- Then there are the Supreme Court conservative6, the “cons.” They need to be rightly called the bullies they are. They hide behind something they and their predecessor, Justice Scalia called “originalism.” It is nonsense, and just a way to bully the American people into believing the only way to understand Supreme Court rulings is to see the issue as the founders would have 237 years ago. They make up things as they go along, cite 17th century witch-hunters and consider a 2,000 year old possible confrontation between Jesus and Roman Governor Pilate to justify their warped rulings against women’s right to bodily autonomy, and Trump’s right to immunity for whatever he does that the SC 6 agree is “official.” The bullying in this case is near absolute because We the People have no say related to 6 justices nominated by Republican presidents for specific religious purposes that are not about the American people, probably their “salvation” or something.
- There are the scared mostly old white men in red state legislatures who choose to take away the rights of citizens of the state, to please themselves or someone else. Like the Supreme 6, they make it up as they go along or find themselves bowing to their governor or Donald Trump, and not to the citizens who employ them.
- Religious bullies have raised their heads trying to get privileges for their religious entity over others in a nation that can have no established religion, NONE! They tell vulnerable Christians that Donald Trump is a messenger from god so they must support him and whatever he does because it is god’s will (then donate, of course). Utter nonsense!
For the sake of all of us, these bullies need to be stopped. Together, we could stand up and figure out who needs a moderate "punch in the nose" to make them stop bullying. That might include:
- a serious "luck tax" on the very rich, say, with an income from all sources of over $3 million a year, Hmmm, 10%
- pass 18-year term limits on SC justices as well as a strict code of ethics supervised by an independent board with real consequences, (, and expand the SC to cover all 13 district courts.
- vote out those old state legislature and governor white bullies and send them home to retire.
- Remove tax-exempt status from churches that specifically promote the candidacy of people in particular political parties.
- Begin regulating social media and heavily fining the owners and CEOs that use harmful deep fakes and destructive posts as reported by the media users and independent reviewers.
- Demand more of our mainstream media, better coverage of both campaigns, honesty when dealing with candidates who are not functioning, not just in one party, in short understand that their idea of “fair and balances” may be neither depending how it is covered.
- We can stop the bullying and I believe Harris and Walz can get the process started or rather continue what has been attempted in the past 3 years or so. The bullying must stop! We the People must demand it! We do that at the ballot box in November. Tell the world we will not be bullied anymore by a pack of unscrupulous actors who care nothing for anyone but their votes, as Trump told his followers. The bullying will not stop by itself because the bullies benefit financially and politically from it, so it’s up to us.
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