Rush Limbaugh�s years
of bullying may finally have caught up with him. His vicious
attack on Sandra Fluke, a Georgetown
University law student, was over
the top, even by Limbaugh�s standards. Calling the young
woman a �slut� and a �prostitute� for supporting health
insurance coverage for contraception has cost the on-air
personality and full-time blowhard a number of advertisers,
and many hope, his radio program as well.
Another
conservative personality - blogger, editor and publisher,
Andrew Breitbart - met an untimely passing just days ago.
Praised by the right as a hero who stood up for what he
believed in, there is no question he was a warrior for
his cause, and was very good at what he did. Meanwhile,
African-Americans, progressives and others will not fail
to mention that Breitbart employed methods of deception
and dishonesty
to bring about the downfall of ACORN. And he ruined the
reputation and career of USDA official and civil rights
activist, Shirley Sherrod, by doctoring a video of a speech
she made, falsely portraying her as a hater of white people.
This
nation has a love-hate relationship with bullies. In one
breath, society condemns bullying. And yet our society
thrives on it, encourages it and glorifies it.
America names buildings after its bullies.
Take J. Edgar Hoover, one of America�s most notorious villains. The FBI chief
destroyed social justice movements, and led a campaign
to �prevent
the rise of a black Messiah� through his COINTELPRO
program. According to one of his purported black relatives,
he was also a
black man passing for white. Now, that adds a new
layer of complexity to his bullying, if it doesn�t actually
provide a context to his motivation in declaring a war
on black America.
A
problem among young people, bullying is a cause of teen
suicides and schoolhouse shootouts. First, there is outrage
and sadness, then silence, as people resume their daily
lives until the next tragedy occurs.
Politicians
make a lucrative career out of bullying low income and
working people for not being rich, women for wanting control
over their own bodies, and Latino immigrants for having
brown skin and speaking Spanish.
Bullies
make sure that other bullies have as many guns as they
want, at home or abroad, making it far easier to shoot
someone than to vote for someone. By the way, voter ID
is a form of bullying against people of color, the poor,
students and the disabled.
In
today�s rancorous political discourse, bullies are afraid
of change and want to impose their will. So they rewrite
the textbooks to wipe out Latino studies and all traces
of the civil rights movement, and would refight the Civil
War to get another shot at victory - a century-and-a-half
after the fact. The nation of their dreams is 100 percent
white and fully Christian - but in a Talibanic sense,
where women are subservient and powerless - so they enact
legislation to ban Sharia law and monitor women�s reproductive
organs.
Bullies
called police officers brutalize and pepper spray protestors
practicing nonviolent civil disobedience, and spy on Muslim
students outside their jurisdiction. These bullies frame
people for crimes they didn�t commit, and beat scripted
confessions out of them. Bullies also known as district
attorneys coerce innocent people into taking a plea. Sometimes,
they even send innocent people to death row - just to
score more points on the tally sheet - and never have
to pay for their crimes.
Now
is the time that we all must stand up to these bullies,
for our own sake and for America�s future.
BlackCommentator.com Executive Editor, David
A. Love, JD is a journalist and human rights advocate
based in Philadelphia, is a graduate of Harvard College and the University of Pennsylvania
Law School. and a contributor to The Huffington
Post, the Grio, The Progressive
Media Project, McClatchy-Tribune News Service,
In These
Times and Philadelphia
Independent Media Center. He also blogs at davidalove.com, NewsOne, Daily Kos, and Open Salon. Click here to contact Mr. Love.
