I am a survivor of bullying!
I was bullied beginning as early as when I was two year old, as I have discussed repeatedly. Eventually I learned to kick their asses or “make friends” with them as circumstances warranted (sometimes to the detriment of some of their victims). When you’re a kid (especially the smallest kid in the class as I was), that sort of thing is survival stuff. I am genuinely ashamed of things I did as a child, and I will not discuss them here. I am not running for president, so I am confident I will never be called upon to explain what I did, or deny what I allegedly may have done.
This is not to defend Mitt Romney, whom I have never endorsed. While I think the stuff detailed here is pretty shitty conduct by any standard (including the standards which is not applied to the president’s high school hijinks), the emerging portrait of the candidate as a young dog school bully shows that the Democrat strategists are not stupid. They had to know about the allegations of Romney’s alleged high school behavior at least a year ago, maybe much longer.
Hence the recent anti-bullying campaign. If it wasn’t politically timed, it will certainly prove helpful.
We are all concerned about bullies, right? If John Lauber had his hair sadistically cut by Mitt Romney as alleged in amazingly obsessive detail, then I think he had every right to kick Mitt Romney’s precious little ass the hell out of blooming Bloomfield Hills, Michigan.
This is not an endorsement of violence against Romney, mind you. Nor is it a denial of the trauma of bullying, whether for being gay or for being… different.
I’m just being my childish self. I think Romney deserved to get his ass kicked.
Which is relevant, right?
Comments
7 responses to “I was bullied too! So bully for me!”
the make believe media:
Sister of Alleged Romney Target Has ‘No Knowledge’ of Any Bullying Incident
http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2012/05/sister-of-alleged-romney-target-has-no-knowledge-of-any-bullying-incident/#.T6yUKQh3n2E.twitter
Also running on Breitbart, via Drudge:
http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Journalism/2012/05/11/Washington-Post-Romney-Bullying-Profile-Contradicted-By-Automobile-Magazine
I agree, that if it’s so, Romney deserved to get his ass kicked.
But as the other two above said, that story’s looking pretty flimsy right now.
I suspect the strategists are stupid if they thought this would really work, though – the only people salivating over it are people who’d already Rather Die Than Vote Republican… and the swing voters are either going to forget by November, or find out they were sold a bill of goods.
Eric should explain how the public school system, administrators and public bureaucrats are to blame for the bullying.
It is pretty easy to put words in the mouth of a dead man. But whatever. Assuming the story has some factual basis, it’s a another example of a victim who should have fought back.
It’s factual, otherwise why would Romney have apologized? It doesn’t matter now. We all did stupid things as teenagers. Romney has more to answer for than a bullying episode 40 years ago – like state forced health insurance.
“It is pretty easy to put words in the mouth of a dead man. But whatever. Assuming the story has some factual basis, it’s a another example of a victim who should have fought back.”
I agree, but in my opinion, its also another example of where a bully is let off the hook because a number of apologists prefer to use the “aw shucks” and “boys will be boys” line. You addressed earlier that victims do not fight back, placing the blame on a society becoming weaker and public schools not caring. Here we are talking about bullying in the 60s at a prep school, so those explanations don’t apply. Which goes back to my point that bullying occurs because it is implicitly condoned, perhaps encouraged even, not because outside forces are holding back victims from fighting back.
FWIW, most bullies grow up to become good people like Romney. I also felt that most bullies probably didn’t even realize what they were doing (like Romney) and feel bad about it (unlike Romney) later. Mitt doesn’t seem to feel bad about it, opting for a pathetic, “I apologize if anyone got hurt or was offended” line.