Michael Matteo: The bullying double standard

Op-ed views and opinions expressed are solely those of the author.

Two Democratic senators refused to support the 3.5 trillion dollar spending bill, and both were harassed by liberal activists who insisted that the senators support the bill, which has been championed by President Biden and labeled, “Build Back Better.”  Senator Kyrsten Sinema was in an Arizona State University restroom and was followed in there and video was taken of a woman (an illegal alien) chastising her for not supporting the bill.  When asked about the harassment of Senator Sinema, the president remarked that “these things happen to everybody” and it was “part of the process.”  Other activists took to kayaks to harass senator, Joe Manchin of West Virginia, while he was on his boat.  Many supporters of these activists took to their Twitter accounts to praise those who seem to have forgotten that bullying people to do what you want them to do is unacceptable and un-American.

Whether or not one believes in a bill that would continue to add to an ever-burgeoning national debt or whether it is something needed by the people is a moot point.  The point here is that there is a time and place for political discourse and for confronting candidates, and most reasonable people can agree that the place is not in a bathroom.    

At the same time that these incidents were occurring, it has been reported that the FBI, at the request of the Department of Justice, is undertaking an investigation of parents who, lawfully, assemble at local school board meetings to challenge policies that seek to teach children things that they deem to be inappropriate.  Perhaps before allowing the FBI to investigate parents, the president should take his own advice and view parental rights to speak at school board meetings as “part of the process” and leave parents alone.  

Last year the internet blew up with numerous videos of diners being harassed by ANTIFA members, and others being physically beaten in the streets of American cities.  Video after video showed violent actions of those inciting riots, burning federal buildings.  Where was the FBI investigating these individuals who surely posed a far greater danger than parents speaking at school board meetings?  

One liberal site, Jezebel, published a piece titled, “Absolutely Bully Kyrsten Sinema Outside Of Her Bathroom Stall.”  A CNN political  commentator, Ana Navarro-Cardenas, tweeted, “Maybe if @kyrstensinema spent less time in fundraisers with corporate donors and held town-halls to listen to constituents and answer their questions, they wouldn’t chase her into the damn .”

These incidents highlight a serious problem in America, which involves the way the left and right view and react to bad behavior.  Many on the left point to the January 6th insurrection, but fail to call out multiple incidents of bad behavior by liberal activists.  Most conservative commentators have condemned the actions of January 6th and called for those who were involved to be punished to the full extent of the law, which is appropriate. Yet, those on the left rarely condemn the actions of those who act in an unlawful and disrespectful manner. It is this exercise in hypocrisy that further polarizes Americans.    

The party that openly condemns bullying of people for views seems to embrace it when it involves the bullying of people who disagree with their agenda.  “Champions” for people bullied due to sexual orientation, transgender issues or for other reasons that they deem to be unjust either turn a blind eye or attempt to rationalize it when those being bullied are on the other side of the political aisle.  Isn’t the act of bullying someone reprehensible, regardless of who is doing the bullying and who is being bullied?  Just as they do with wokabulary, those on the left manipulate stories and redefine events that rationalize bad behavior if the perpetrator is a member of the radical left.  They justify the behavior of the woman who followed the senator into the bathroom by saying, she was not harassing the senator; she was merely exercising her right of “free speech.”  

America has become an ad-hominem world (ad-hominem being a fallacy that involves attacking a person rather than the position they take) where people have to check political affiliations to determine whether or not to support, remain silent or criticize the person’s actions.   Entire news outlets and magazines disguised as legitimate news sources push narratives that fail to report news, and instead opt for sensationalized stories that spin the stories in the direction of whatever agency is doing the reporting. 

As a child, I was taught “right” and “wrong” by my parents. They never told me to look at the identity of the person or my relationship with the perpetrator to determine whether the other person was right or wrong.  They taught me to judge “actions” and, even if it was my best friend who did it, it didn’t change how the actions I should judge the actions. Every incident where actions are condemned or supported based upon the agenda of the individual creates injustice. Every incident that receives biased news coverage because of the political affiliation of the individual to promote an agenda is why people have no faith in the journalists who report these incidents. There was a time when “yellow journalism” was seen as something negative, but today, the majority of journalism has a strong and unapologetic bias. 

When well-meaning parents show up at school board meetings to voice their discontent about what is being taught to their children, it is within their rights as Americans and they shouldn’t fear that they will be investigated by the FBI. This is the kind of fear tactic that was used by Nazi Germany in the 1930s to squash dissent for the ever-growing party of Hitler. As taxpayers, these parents have every right to know what is being taught to their children, and if they find that schools are imposing baseless, racist, inappropriate curriculum, they have every right to voice their opinions in a public forum. In some cases, parents have become emotional, but when you perceive something that may harm your child, it does generate emotions for parents who don’t want their children harmed by warped ideas that are being promoted by taxpayer public schools. 

Perhaps it is symbolic that the location of where Senator Sinema was harassed was in a public restroom.  If people don’t stop judging right and wrong by their like or dislike of people, and call out all bullying as unjust, the country is positioned to end up in the toilet.

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Michael Matteo

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