Forget baseball, bullying, it seems, is fast becoming the national pasttime.

Bullying involves intimidation by one side over another acting with unshakeable confidence — whether real or faked. It’s about the unilateral exercise of power — real or imagined. Republican party power comes from its minority role and ability to block bills in the Senate. Republican unity often convinces Democratic leaders to not bother to move bills not certain to garner 60 or more votes. Minorities can bully despite their numerical disadvantage.

Bullies love to claim they are victims. They are whiners, projecting their weaknesses onto others. For example, Grover Norquist of Americans for Tax Reform famous for calling bipartisanship "date rape" claims that (1) there is a left wing political handbook, and (2) it dictates the use of lies, harassment and violence at Town Hall meetings to silence meeting disrupters. 

However, it’s the vociferous minority at Town Halls who are the harassers. Their startling misconduct paralyzes attendees who are there to get genuine questions answered or to have a reasonable dialogue as a voting constituent. Just like in bullying situations in families, classrooms and workplaces, witnesses tend to stand idly by with a deer-in-the-headlights powerlessness.

Civility and respectful disagreements are quickly becoming a thing of the past. Watch how Rep. Kathy Castor of Tampa tries valiantly to talk through the noise.

Town Hall bullies are the ones with simple-to-follow guidelines for those unwilling to think for themselves. Nothing could be farther from courteous civility in public settings necessary to discuss something as important as whether or not the health insurance industry will change. Changes proposed, but far from finalized, may create new opportunities for coverage for people previously blocked by the industry’s historical habits — rescissions (policy cancellations for dubious reasons), exclusion of pre-existing conditions (rendering the personal insurance game a "Catch 22" in which the only ones eligible for coverage are the ones who least need it), and unconscionably high COBRA rates after separation from employer-purchased group coverage.

Tea-bagger and relative unknown Bob Macguffie of the Rights Principles.com  wrote the recipe for incitement and chaos at Town Hall meetings. He directed attendees to be disruptive early and often, shout out a particular vote by the Rep then "freeze it, attack it, personalize it, and polarize it." Disrupters are to use intermittent shout outs by different people spread out across the room to make the Rep "uneasy early on .. goal is to rattle" the member of Congress. Macguffie tells people to be angry about "the socialist agenda, infringement of our liberties, and profligate spending."

 Bullies are bullies because they target others with hateful attacks. The real targets of bullying in all settings, for a variety of reasons, cannot or will not defend themselves. The presumed bully in Congress could be the Dems, based on their numerical superiority, but they behave more like targets, victims, and let the minority determine the legislative agenda.

Said one Washington State Democratic representative, "we dare not push the other party around or we will be mistreated when they next come to power and can control us." Make no mistake, this sheepish view is not shared by Republicans who historically intimidate their colleagues when in power. (Can you say Clinton impeachment?)

The rowdy folks in Castor’s Tampa meeting identified themselves afterwards as Glenn Beck fans. If they had studied the language crafted by the House Ways and Means Committee (HR 3200), the first of three House bills which will require melding in September, they could have rationally discussed provisions of the current drafts with which they disagree.

It’s a world turned upside down when the mock-"grassroots" message from the shouters is actually pro-corporate. They want to derail any changes to the current patchwork system that leaves millions of Americans uninsured or underinsured so as to risk dying in the world’s richest country for no other reason than they could not afford access to doctors and hospitals. 

And based on the film footage of some Town Halls, the screamers are unsure of what angers them — "socialism," having a Black President, government in their lives. The Town Hall I attended personally introduced me to a group of about 10 rabblerousers in a group of about 60 people who naively followed Macguffie’s script. 

The Town Hall was held in an American Legion hall with the stated purpose to discuss veterans’ matters. So many of the screamers seemed to be vets — of Medicare-eligibility age and many with VA benefits. Despite the involvement of government in their lives, they stood on cue, clapping, exhorting others in the room to stop the slippery slide into government involvement in healthcare!

To his credit, Congressman Rick Larsen (WA-2)  scheduled subsequent Town Halls to focus on health reform right after the events for veterans.  He also firmly countered the misconceptions and lies about the reform legislation at the meeting I attended. The faux-angry grumblers did not stay around to have an intelligent discussion with the Congressman afterwards.

So not only do bullies lie, they are whining cowards who have no intention of being reasonable. Stay tuned to see how aggression and conduct at Town Halls further impacts progress toward solving the myriad of societal problems.

Gary Namie