Bullying 101

The increasing crescendo of poor, and often outlandish behavior, by people on the left side of the aisle in the US is surprising to me. Be they politicians, the hired and appointed of the same politicians, reporting media, pundits, fellow citizens, or even relatives, they are people who I think were raised with our common American values. These values include civility, mutual respect, love of country, and pursuit of the facts for facts sake.

Sadly it has not turned out this way. Examples include Democrats not attending General Petraeus's briefings set up for the Congress, snubbing of the President of Columbia all the while seeking audiences with the Presidents of Syria and Venezuela, pursuing Congressional tactics and inquisitions destructive to our National Interests to promote their Party interests, and seemingly inventing and repeating the most outlandish stories often enough to use them as facts.

This behavior has been characterized as many things to include Bush Derangement Syndrome, just plain hatred of Bush and his entire administration, retribution for the alleged 2000 election results which brought us Bush, and a strategy of incivility and opposition to anything Bush. This is a sad state of affairs that a minority of our citizens have led us to, but it still is not American. And the entire group on the left of the aisle should not characterized as some monolithic whole. Only a small portion of this group got us to where we are today.

And so to the point of this post. I now live in the country, having abandoned Atlanta, and have a pack of yard dogs that over the last 5 years has varied from 6 to 8 in numbers. And I see bullying every day by dogs. There seem to be many analogies between what I have seen in my yard, and what I observe humans doing to each other in the US today. It has to do with bullying.
· Bullies only bully those willing to be bullied. Bullies know to be selective in who they can bully.
· Bullies can be males and females.
· Size is not a factor. A bullying ego is a factor.
· Even the most mild mannered bullied dog periodically becomes fed up, and fights back. This usually means medical action by the vet or myself, and a bill to match.

One can apply this bullying behavior to our Country today. Bullying is intolerable, and with dogs one tries things like shock collars and paint ball guns, but in the end a bully is a bully it seems, unless I want to put that dog down. Then another bully dog will probably arise. I have not gone there yet, in either case. With human bullies, things are more difficult, but there are still options. They are called the power of persuasion, and the power of the vote. This is the American way of dealing with this terrible problem, and the sad state it has brought upon us.

PS For the dog lovers among the readers, count me in. My yard dog numbers have varied do to death by old age, and very hungry coyotes closing in during the winters.