March 29, 2024

Misuse of word “bully” diminishes it for those whom it really applies

To the editor:

Obama Being Bullied? Hardly.

Governor Delvan Patrick of Massachusetts spoke passionately in Charlotte at the DNC this summer. He had tears gleaming on his face as his audience beamed back at him with interest and admiration. Then he used a phrase I had never really heard in contemporary political rallying. He said something along the lines of ‘President Obama should not be bullied out of the White House.’

The phrase basically went untouched by the mainstream media from what I could tell. This wording, however, stuck with me for a few days. I pondered the implication that a sitting president with a Harvard education, a hundred million dollar war chest and some of the slickest advisors in history could be “bullied” out of the White House.

It sounded to me then, as it still does, completely ridiculous. The insinuation is that by challenging President Obama in a fair contest and using the same legal tactics to unseat him – that Mitt Romney is somehow a bully.

The first presidential debate of the general elections has also given the left an opportunity to use the word ‘bully.’ It has been said that Romney bullied the president and the moderator. First of all, Jim Lehrer has moderated twelve presidential debates. With experience such as that, it would be absurd to think that a first-timer like Mitt Romney would have the wherewithal, much less the nerve, to “bully” him.

The same holds true for the President of the United States. If President Obama is currently the victim of bullying, he simply should not occupy the Oval Office.

In the eighteen months leading up to Obama’s inauguration, we watched as the liberal media and left-wing activists railroaded and steamrolled the likes of President Bush and Governor Palin. Surely the technical definition of bullying would apply to those cases yet I never once heard the term during those days - and rightly so.

Bullying is obviously a troubling part of life, especially for those who don’t have the resources to defend against it. However, as the left continues to invent victimization, I have no doubt their overuse of the word will work to diminish the term for those to whom it is justly applied.

Marshall Critchfield

Newton