By Robert Reich
As a kid I was always a head shorter
than other boys, which meant I was bullied – mocked, threatened, sometimes
assaulted.
Childhood bullying has been going on
forever. But in recent years America has become a culture of bullying –
the wealthier over the poorer, CEOs over workers, those with privilege and
pedigree over those without, the whiter over the browner and blacker, men over
women.
Sometimes the bullying involves
physical violence. More often it entails intimidation, displays of dominance,
demands for submission, or arbitrary decisions over the lives of those who feel
they have no choice but to accept them.
The Kavanaugh-Ford hearings before
the Senate Judiciary Committee on September 27 was a window into our bullying
culture.
On one side: powerful men who harass
or abuse women and get away with it, privileged white men intent on entrenching
their power on the Supreme Court, men vested with the power to take away a
woman’s right to choose what she does with her body.
On the other: women with the courage
to tell what has happened to them, to demand an end to white male privilege,
and to preserve and enlarge their constitutional rights.
Dr. Ford was poised, articulate, clear and convincing. More than that: She radiated self-assured power.
Brett Kavanaugh, by contrast, showed
himself to be a vicious partisan – a Trump-like figure who feels entitled to do
and say whatever he wants, who suspects left-wing plots against him, who
refuses to take responsibility for his actions, and who uses emotional bullying
and intimidation to get his way.
Whatever happens to Kavanaugh, a
large portion of the American public will never trust him to be impartial. Many
will never believe his denials of sexual harassment.
Most will continue to see him as the privileged, arrogant, self-righteous person he revealed himself to be.
Most will continue to see him as the privileged, arrogant, self-righteous person he revealed himself to be.
Which brings us to the coming
midterm election.
It’s not really a contest between
Democrats or Republicans, left or right. It’s a contest between the
bullies and the bullied. It’s about the power of those who are rich, white,
privileged, or male – or all of the above – to threaten and intimidate those
who aren’t.
And it’s about the courage of
the bullied to fight back.
Donald Trump is America’s
bully-in-chief. He exemplifies those who use their wealth to gain power and
celebrity, harass or abuse women and get away with it, lie and violate the law
with impunity, and rage against anyone who calls them on their bullying.
Trump became president by exploiting
the anger of millions of white working class Americans who for decades have
been economically bullied by corporate executives, CEOs, and Wall Street.
Even as profits have ballooned and
executive pay has gone into the stratosphere, workers have been hammered. Their
pay has gone nowhere, their benefits have shrunk, their jobs are less secure.
Trump used this anger to build his
political base, channeling the frustrations and anxieties into racism and
nativism. He encouraged Americans who have been bullied to feel more powerful
by bullying people with even less power: poor blacks, Latinos, immigrants,
Muslims, families seeking asylum.
This bullying game has been played repeatedly in history, by self-described strongmen who pretend to be tribunes of the oppressed by scapegoating the truly powerless.
Trump is no tribune of the people.
He and his enablers in the Republican Party are working for the moneyed
interests – the Koch Brothers, Sheldon Adelson, other corporate and Wall Street
chieftains – by cutting their taxes, eliminating regulations, slashing public
services, and allowing them to profit off public lands, coastal waters, and
privatized services.
The moneyed interests are America’s
hidden bullies. They have enlarged their net worth by repressing wages (or
pushing the companies they invest in to do so), and enlarged their political
power through gerrymandering and suppressing votes (or pushing their political
lackeys to do so).
Their capacity to bully has grown as the nation’s wealth has become concentrated in fewer hands, as the economy has become more monopolized, and as American politics has become more engulfed by big money.
It is time to fight back against
the bullies. It is time to join together to reclaim economic and political
power.
It begins with the midterm
elections, November 6.
Robert B. Reich is Chancellor's Professor of Public Policy at
the University of California at Berkeley and Senior Fellow at the Blum Center for
Developing Economies. He served as Secretary of Labor in the Clinton
administration, for which Time Magazine named him one of the ten most effective
cabinet secretaries of the twentieth century. He has written fifteen books,
including the best sellers "Aftershock", "The Work of
Nations," and "Beyond Outrage," and, his most recent, "The
Common Good," which is available in bookstores now. He is also a founding
editor of the American Prospect magazine, chairman of Common Cause, a member of
the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and co-creator of the award-winning
documentary, "Inequality For All." He's co-creator of the Netflix
original documentary "Saving Capitalism," which is streaming now.
