Should Presidents Bully Citizens?
The Wall Street Journal has a story about Democratic dirty tricks against donors to the Romney campaign. It helps explain how citizens are targeted once the President puts them on his public enemies list.
Three weeks ago, Obama's campaign web site publicly named and lambasted eight private citizens for backing Mitt Romney. It accused them of being wealthy and having less-than-reputable records.
One of the men was Frank VanderSloot, the CEO of Melaleuca, Inc. He was accused of being "litigious, combative and a bitter foe of the gay rights movement."
Shortly after that post went live, a Democratic operative named Michael Wolf began asking a local courthouse in Idaho for all documents related to VanderSloot's personal and professional dealings there. Wolf, the Journal reports, was until recently a clerk on the Senate's Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations. Now he works for Glenn Simpson's Fusion GPS, a company that does opposition research.
The Journal asked Mr. Wolf about why he was digging into VanderSloot and what his relationship with Fusion was. He said he didn't want to talk about it.
When the Journal tried to find out who was paying this company to dig through VanderSloot's records, they wouldn't say. VanderSloot was first targeted earlier this year:
Liberal bloggers and media have since dug into his past, dredging up long-ago Idaho controversies that touched on gay issues. His detractors have spiraled these into accusations that Mr. VanderSloot is a "gay bashing thug." He's become a national political focus of attention, aided by the likes of partisan Salon blogger Glenn Greenwald and MSNBC host Rachel Maddow. Bloggers have harassed his children, visiting their social media accounts and asking for interviews and information.
Mr. VanderSloot has said his attackers have misconstrued facts and made false allegations. In February he wrote a long reply, publicly stating that he has "many gay friends whom I love and respect" who should "have the same freedoms and rights as any other individual." The Obama campaign's response, in April, was to single out Mr. VanderSloot and repeat the slurs.
Political donations don't come with a right to privacy, and Mr. VanderSloot might have expected a spotlight. Then again, President Obama, in the wake of the Gabby Giffords shooting, gave a national address calling for "civility" in politics. Yet rather than condemn those demeaning his opponent's donors, Mr. Obama—the nation's most powerful man—instead publicly named individuals, egging on the attacks. What has followed is the slimy trolling into a citizen's private life.
VanderSloot says that when Obama singled him out on the enemies list, he knew it would mean more pressure. But he says the false accusations and public beatings are no deterrent. He says he may even make another donation.
Nevertheless, this enemies list and the accompanying bullying aren't appropriate. I'd feel much better about this man having to endure what he's going through if it were just coming from well-funded advocates of changing the definition of marriage. Having the president participate in this is wrong.
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Mar '12
Re: Should Presidents Bully Citizens?
When I hear questions like this, I ask myself: "Is 'our' side guilty of the same bullying?" Usually these these accusations end up devolving into "It's okay when my guy does it." But I think, in this case especially, the left has the market cornered on political bullying. Say what you want about the guy, Bush was never a demagogue like Obama, and the left has has a history of silencing the opposition. When the Executive gives the green light to demagogue on this issue the self-righteous hatred will only get worse. Remember the blacklists after Prop 8 passed? That was when Obama was against gay marriage.
Jun '10
Re: Should Presidents Bully Citizens?
As most high-visibility conservatives learn (when they go to speak at liberal universities,) being conservative is not just wrong--it's evil and must be destroyed...in the name of tolerance.
Re: Should Presidents Bully Citizens?
Barack Obama has brought the tactics of Chicago politics to the national arena. No one in Chicago dares to take on the machine. The Democrats there know how to help their friends and harm their enemies. What we have now in DC is, as Michael Barone has noted from time to time, a gangster government.
Feb '11
Re: Should Presidents Bully Citizens?
They are going to keep doing this kind of thing for as long as they don't pay a price. At a minimum they get material for a fund-raising letter to their base. The most deterrant they get is ...... <crickets>. The modern Democrat party has the temperment of a bully and acts according to that temperment. The MSM will not call them on it for all the obvious reasons. There seems to be no legal penaty.
My experience with bullies is that they primarily respond to negative stimuli (e.g. fear). Stand up and punch them in the nose (metaphorically speaking).
May '11
Re: Should Presidents Bully Citizens?
Would a Romney D.O.J. go after any of this administration's apparatchiks for the obviously illegal things they have done? Would anyone in a Romney governed IRS get fired for "targeted" audits? Would anyone in a Romney governed EPA get fired for "crucifying" businesses?
I can hear it now, "I think we need to heal and the best way to do that is to move forward and put all that behind us."
Mar '12
Re: Should Presidents Bully Citizens?
I think this emerges from the fundamental differences between the two sides. The left is the side of protest/activism: They want to change a wicked world. "Interfere!" The right is the side of laissez faire: To each his own (as long as you bring no harm to others).
Edited on May 11, 2012 at 4:10pmJul '11
Re: Should Presidents Bully Citizens?
Who is the president's firewall? If we had a way to send that man to jail and twiddled our thumbs would that make us idiots? Barrack Obama is a petty man with emotional problems and a large network of thugs.
Sep '11
Re: Should Presidents Bully Citizens?
This is only just getting started. Remember EightMaps? That was a "mashup" of Google Maps and the list of donors who supported Proposition 8. It didn't just result in blacklisting--it resulted in at least physical assault of a San Francisco homeowner.
It isn't just gay "marriage"--remember the Krauthammer Rule: conservatives think liberals are stupid; liberals think conservatives are evil. So spray-painting a car with a Bush bumper sticker is acceptable; but questioning gay "marriage" is "bashing."
In the 2008 election the police in Bethlehem (Pa.) started encouraging Republicans to take down their yard signs--because "person or persons unknown" were taking them down...with shotguns.
Jun '10
Re: Should Presidents Bully Citizens?
The politics of personal destruction, waged against politicians, is just politics - distasteful though it may be. The politics of personal destruction, waged against private citizens, is tyranny.
What then of virtue? Lost in the bloodlust of the political kill.
Edited on May 11, 2012 at 4:28pmDec '11
Re: Should Presidents Bully Citizens?
I keep saying that as long as our libel laws are criminally loose, its only going to get worse. We should at least narrow the public figure doctrine down to people who are actually public figures.
Jan '11
Re: Should Presidents Bully Citizens?
Every time I think Obama can't hit a new low, he surprises me.
I guess we could say that in this one area, at least, his administration has exceeded expectations.
Dec '10
Re: Should Presidents Bully Citizens?
This from the head of the party which happily takes money from the ChiComs and Bill Maher.
Mar '12
Re: Should Presidents Bully Citizens?
Very good take on this Molly. This is an important question, but one with a clear answer: no, Presidents should not bully private citizens. FDR called out certain private individuals and families during the Depression, admonishing them for having put their capital "on strike." It is as appalling now as it was then. It's an egregious abuse of power and too closely associated with radical purges and "enemies of the state" propaganda. Bullying like this ought to have no place in American politics.
Jun '10
Re: Should Presidents Bully Citizens?
We often say that the president has the "bully pulpit," which I have always interpreted as having the power, provided by the office, to have the airtime and even the gravitas to persuade, even guide the country. Reagan was the master: but it was never really bullying. For him, it was the art of using his pulpit to make the moral case for conservative principles. Arthur Brooks defined it perfectly on the podcast.
Obama takes the concept literally. Or, as Uncle Joe would say, "Obama has the power. He has the power, and I mean this literally, and not figuratively, to bully citizens." What a horrible president. I weep for America.
Edited on May 11, 2012 at 5:15pmFeb '12
Re: Should Presidents Bully Citizens?
I can't define fascism, but I know it when I see it.
May '10
Re: Should Presidents Bully Citizens?
And don't forget that he served in and learned from the administration of Woodrow Wilson, which used WWI as an excuse to impose pervasive government controls, set up a propaganda machine that Mussolini admired, and organize teams of thugs to silence dissenters. There are very good reasons to see the progressive Wilson as our first fascist president.
But what worries me the most are the liberals I know who frankly state that they do not care about government bullying and even abrogation of the civil rights--as long as the victims are people they disagree with. The progressive mask is slipping.
Apr '11
Re: Should Presidents Bully Citizens?
When the left are in power they run things like a criminal organization, they use any means to crush opposition, and are quick to rely on thuggish behavior. This isn't new to Obama and the "Chicago style" Bill Clinton had his hillbilly mafia. The left the world over follow these tactics.
May '10
Re: Should Presidents Bully Citizens?
I'm pretty sure that when Teddy Roosevelt's coined the phrase "bully pulpit" he was using an archaic meaning of "bully" as "excellent".
Re: Should Presidents Bully Citizens?
Has anybody actually looked at the Obama site in question? Go look: It purports to the be the site of "The Truth Team" -- a team with its very own logo, a little "T" in a shield. And its post after post of this same vitriol about Romney and his supporters, but it's all just the President declaring "The Truth." It's about the creepiest thing I've ever seen. I mean, it's double-plus good, of course.
Sep '10
Re: Should Presidents Bully Citizens?
We can safely refer to them as Truthers, then.