Election 2010: The Attack Of The Bullies

We've never seen or heard of any year ever where bullying has made its effects felt throughout every corner of American life the way it has done this year. Whether they're teenaged and gay, or it's a hate crime of a different nature, the bullies seem to be out in force lately. Crime statistics unfortunately support our contention.

Particularly in some political races, the bully mindset has become almost  acceptable this year - but it had yet to cross over into physical violence, until Monday night.

In case you missed it, on Monday night, prior to the final debate for the Kentucky U.S. Senate seat between GOP candidate Rand Paul and Democratic candidate Jack Conway, a GOP supporter - one of Mr. Paul's own campaign coordinators, who was also a local Kentucky Republican party official - physically attacked a Democratic supporter of Mr. Paul's opponent, who was attempting to get the attention of Mr. Paul. The primary assailant had help from several other not-yet officially identified Republicans, who held, pushed, and eventually stomped on the head of the Democratic supporter. The victim later ended up in the hospital with severe bruises, a sprain, and a concussion.

The bullying hasn't stopped there.

On Tuesday, NPR received a bomb threat with the apparent goal of scaring or silencing them in the wake of firing commentator Juan Williams. Cartoonist Mike Thompson of the Detroit Free Press also received a similar bullying attempt from Fox News' Bill O'Reilly and his rabid audience, who obviously didn't see the irony in attempting to silence the free speech of a cartoonist, who drew a cartoon about Mr. Williams' job-ending gaffe.

We're well aware of the opinions of many people around the country on both ends of the political spectrum. Many of them are of the opinion that President Obama and the Democrats have allowed the Republicans and Tea Partiers to bully the Democrats around. Many Tea Partiers also hold similar opinions of the Republican party as weaklings, unwilling to stand up for the views of those on the far right.

Unfortunately, these are just the latest attempts this year in the U.S. to use fear and intimidation to gain political advantage. There have been too many bullying political ads to count. A large number of clergy bullied from their pulpits this fall too, in direct violation of Federal laws. And an enraged listener of Glenn Beck was stopped in California earlier this year on his way to massacre people at a progressive-allied group.

We're aware that Americans have violently differing opinions on topics ranging from taxes to religion, and from abortion to euthanasia. For all that, though, it's not just a quaint idea that we should be able to agree to disagree in a civil way.

If we cannot treat each other civilly, the government DOES have the authority to step in and stop the bullying, the assaults, and the violence.

As we've said already once this year, enough is enough.

Angels, Devils, and Uncompromising Stupidity

With the elections just a week away, something several of our staff members recently saw on Facebook has been brought to mind again by the recent comments of Senate Minority leader, Mitch McConnell.

What we saw last week as we were updating our Facebook pages was a comment proudly boasting the following:

Overheard at the dinner table tonight : "Remember kids, tomorrow is the Weekly Reader election, and we only vote for candidates with an 'R' after their name. -[spouse's name] I married a good [person.]"

Aside from the fact that brainwashing one's kids instead of teaching them critical thinking is disgusting, we're not entirely surprised at this admission of thoughtless behavior, given the current political environment in America. We are disappointed, however.

That disappointment continued late yesterday, when we read the interview of Sen. McConnell by National Journal's Major Garrett.

No matter who wins the election next week, it's obvious that BOTH sides will have to find REAL compromise in order to accomplish anything the next two years. Yet McConnell, the leader of the Republicans in the Senate, said the following in his interview:

"The single most important thing we want to achieve is for President Obama to be a one-term president."

Even though MILLIONS of Americans are unemployed or underemployed. Even though we are still fighting one war (and truly haven't finished cleaning up from another). Even though there are massive problems with the budget, with the need to find more revenue and to refine the Federal budget further. Even though our entire political system is practically up for grabs to the highest bidder right now, the GOP's most powerful Senator seems to think NONE of those issues are more important than simply sinking the agenda of a President who happens to be from the opposing political party.

We've said it before, and we'll repeat it again: there are members of each party who are less than shining examples of either their party's politics or ethical conduct in general. Voting strictly party line only keeps these morally bankrupt fools in office. It's also an almost guaranteed way to end up with a deadlocked political system that isn't responsive to the needs of the people it is supposed to serve.

Sure, most of us have the metaphorical little devil on our shoulders who says the same thing as the misguided parent we saw on Facebook, especially when we encounter situations that favor our chosen political party.

The truth, however, is that - unlike Sen. McConnell - we should vote for people whose policies we agree with, those who will work in a bipartisan fashion in order to make things better for all of us.

There is a reason President Obama campaigned on the idea that we need to appeal to the better angels of our nature, instead of the little devils. We hope you'll remember that as you head into the voting booth.

When You're In A Hole...

In an election season with an economy still recovering from the worst failure by Wall Street since the Great Depression, and during the same year that saw the worst oil disaster in history, we'd hoped to hear a few new ideas this fall. We thought it would have made sense for candidates to be talking about jobs programs, fixing the problems with the banks, mortgages, and corporate America.  We even thought energy and environmental issues might be on the table.

Instead, for the most part, we've had "I'm not a witch", and "Aqua Buddha", while outside interests from who knows where have attempted to buy our midterm elections out from under the American people.

In a few rare cases, there have been candidates seriously debating substantive issues, and we applaud those few who have done so.

However, the most important discussion we've heard on energy, the environment, and jobs recently has been from two incumbent U.S. Senators, neither of whom is up for reelection.

At the end of last week, Nebraska Democratic Senator Ben Nelson and Republican Senator Mike Johanns both announced they had significant concerns with the proposed Keystone oil pipeline being built by a Canadian company. The pipeline's proposed route travels from Canada through Montana and South Dakota, across Nebraska, then down through Kansas and Oklahoma to Texas, where the raw crude would be refined.

Currently, the proposal also takes the pipeline through the Nebraska Sandhills, a large area of incredibly porous soil and rock, that sits on top of the Ogallala Aquifer. That aquifer isn't just any insignificant underground puddle. It's one of the world's largest underground sources of water, and provides water suitable for agriculture or drinking for eight states throughout the central portion of the U.S. Without the aquifer, some of the most fertile farmland in the country would dry up and turn into desert.

The company attempting to build and operate the pipeline is the same company responsible for the disastrous oil spill in Michigan this past July, that ranks as one of the worst disasters of its kind in the Midwest.

For now, the Keystone pipeline project has been put on indefinite hold, in part due to the Senators from Nebraska, and in part due to significant trouble the oil company is running into in the wake of new Federal regulations imposed by the Obama administration. Those delays may not hold forever, though, as Sec. of State Clinton mentioned late last week.

It's these kinds of incredibly important issues that we wish we'd seen and heard far more debate over this election season.

If there is a candidate you can vote for, who seriously tackled an issue of this importance, and came down on the correct side of the issue?

We recommend you vote for them as soon as possible. That is, if an actual candidate like that exists where you are.