I detest bullies. I always have.
They are the greatest kind of cowards this world produces. Bullies are by their very nature, predators. The bully’s tactic is simple: leverage their power to generate fear in someone who possesses less power; to use their cultural advantage to terrorize another, all the while masking their own near paralyzing insecurity and self-hatred. They are small people trying to project themselves as towering.
There has quite possibly never existed a bully as afflicted with such sickness as the man occupying 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue right now. Every single move he’s made since stepping into the office has been that of a predatory coward seeking validation through fear:
Stranding desperate refugees at airports after leaving behind all they know and the place they’ve called home in order to craft a less violent, less terrifying life—and exposing them to violence and terror upon their very arrival.
Manufacturing a phony monster out of the Islamic faith, exposing millions of peace-loving Muslim-Americans, who are already among the most-maligned and persecuted, to further intimidation and ostracism.
Harassing undocumented immigrants who are already living lives far more stressful and exhausting than most Americans would ever endure—by creating the false narrative that they are a parasitic danger.
Taking away healthcare from millions of the most vulnerable and financially unstable, ensuring that their already monumental difficulties will be magnified, and that their daily existence will be made exponentially more painful.
Assailing the rights of women to have autonomy over their own bodies and sexual expressions, and reinforcing an oppressive misogyny that is already a daily minefield they must navigate.
Resuming the Dakota Access Pipeline, quite literally bulldozing over the sacred lands of a people who have, since the very birth of our nation, been treated with contempt and disregard.
And now, removing protections from Transgender students, already among the absolute most vulnerable, most burdened, most endangered Americans, with a suicide rate far beyond any other segment of the population.
This is the growing legacy of this detestable Bully Messiah of a President, whose tactics are being applauded by similarly insecure cowards who don’t recognize their privilege, and who don’t know they are the entitled, lazy menace draining this country of its greatness.
The sad irony here, is that the Bully Messiah is not preying upon the weak—no quite the opposite. Refugees, immigrants, the working poor, women, Native Americans, the LGBTQ community: they are the kind of strong and courageous that he will never be or understand. Faced with the absolute most difficult, most dire, most exhausting of days they persevere, they endure, they retain their dignity. Such great character is foreign to a small man so wishing he were big—and he resents them for it.
Meanwhile the Bully Messiah and his Disciples of Cowardice, benefitting from every possible advantage of their whiteness and wealth and circumstance, feel compelled to undermine and attack and further marginalize the vulnerable. They are driven to prey upon those most in need of advocacy, most deserving of respect, and most specifically illustrating what it is that makes this nation great.
Right now, with every transparently predatory move their Messiah makes, the bullies around the country are cheering—but they are the only ones. The rest of us are bearing witness to the premeditated terrorism of a small minority of frightened cowards, and we are pushing back and will continue to pushback. Because if there’s one truth about bullies, it’s that they’re absolutely terrified of resistance. They collapse beneath the pressure of good people who refuse to be defined or silenced by the bully—and thankfully the majority of Americans are such people.
So the insecure, hateful few can have their Bully Messiah and his apparent ascension and their moment of apparent vicarious dominion. They can sing his praises and shout on the street corner and rant online. They can hurl slurs and spray paint doorways and knock over head stones and harass in the hallways—but they will not prevail. They, like all bullies will have to face the reality of their inner smallness and acknowledge the true character of those they harass, which they so covet.
And this bloated, self-inflated Bully Messiah, who sits in the Oval Office each day, reminding all of us that he is little more than a sad, scared, fraudulent child who hates so many in an effort to feel less hatred for himself—will not prevail either. We will not allow it.
To those feeling more unsteady, more at risk, more vulnerable than ever, be encouraged. We are proudly and defiantly standing with you, because you are so worth standing alongside.
America, after all is the home of the brave—and not the bully.
Get Ready America , Pastors, Teachers, leaders
YOUR creating an environment of unrest, Entitlement ,
I deserve it mentality you can not control,
Hate on all sides is real, Not just one side.
Control is both sides , not just one.
Bully’s are in every human being , not just one side.
With out God to control YOUR thoughts, actions, will , you will do what ever YOU think serves you best.
All for Me, YOU , MY will.
The Heart of every man woman child is to serve me 1st. Desparately wicked , who can know it. Self Examination , accountability to a higher being.
The Evil will always strike out, the Meek will always speak and be humble.
Evil People are self serving to what end. ‘
Thats what your creating. Thier will be a price to pay for this Anti God Policy of Acceptance of anything.
you’re, not your.
Please get your meds adjusted, Christopher. You’re slipping away.
Donald Trump is merely bringing to light what needs to be healed, darkness doesn’t like that. Welcome to boot camp soldier!
That which really needs to be healed are the hard hearts and stiff necks of the self-righteous religious right. You are more likely to be standing on the side with the goats rather than the sheep on judgement day. (See Matthew’s Gospel if you don’t know what I am saying.) The marginalized asked for your help and you condemned them. As a born from above, baptized by water and the Holy Spirit, follower of Jesus Christ, I am appalled at the attitudes folks like you display. I doubt you even know any of those you so readily condemn. These issues, in case you have been asleep for a decade or so, are no longer in the dark. They are in the light of day basking in the warmth of the sun. You are speaking of God’s children. Do you really believe that God is pleased with your venom and hatred? The God of my salvation would not be.
This first showed up as anonymous for some reason so I am reposting. That which really needs to be healed are the hard hearts and stiff necks of the self-righteous religious right. You are more likely to be standing on the side with the goats rather than the sheep on judgement day. (See Matthew’s Gospel if you don’t know what I am saying.) The marginalized asked for your help and you condemned them. As a born from above, baptized by water and the Holy Spirit, follower of Jesus Christ, I am appalled at the attitudes folks like you display. I doubt you even know any of those you so readily condemn. These issues, in case you have been asleep for a decade or so, are no longer in the dark. They are in the light of day basking in the warmth of the sun. You are speaking of God’s children. Do you really believe that God is pleased with your venom and hatred? The God of my salvation would not be.
Bruce Garner
Thank you, Bruce Garner, for reposting when you saw it first came up as “anonymous.” Too many of the various anonymouses here are trolls and I when I see anonymous, I delete without reading.
I also want to thank you for what you wrote. The Bible is stuffed to the gills with calls to social justice. It seems clear that the Biblical message is that salvation includes social justice.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer in The Cost of Discipleship talked about “cheap grace” when people claim to be Christians yet sit on their duffs and do not act for social justice.
Donald trump is anything but bring healing. His agenda shows his hate. he is ou to build his business.
Yup, Joan, yup.
🙂 🙂 And that is how we finally figure out the response that turns this monster around.
I so agree with this post,as we are dealing with this daily and will eventually destroy us.I find it hard to believe why the GOP does not act to change😠
This, too shall pass away. Okay but don’t wait for the Lord to do it.
Thank you! Every time I read anything from you, I want to stand up and cheer. Please help us put a different “face” on the “Christianity” that is, as Jim Wallis says in “God’s Politics”, really “Pax Americana”. How can so-called “Evangelicals” support a bully Messiah who stands against everything that we, as Christians, should support. We have our Messiah telling us just how wrong this all is.
There’s something I think the bullies in the majority overlook at their peril. It is simply this: There are no guarantees that the privileged will always stay privileged, that the powerful will eternally be in power. Social and demographic changes, civil rights movements and elections, can all change the balance of who is privileged and comfortable and who is not. Today’s majority can so easily become tomorrow’s plurality, and will remember how the former-majority treated them. Today’s bullies glory in the power they wield over their victims…but there’s no guarantee they’ll always hold that power.
Someday, white Christian Republican cisgender heterosexual men won’t be the majority in our society anymore. The racial and religious shifts are already happening. I wonder how they’ll feel about all the prejudice they’ve codified into “religious liberty” laws, when the beneficiaries of those laws are people other than them.
Exactly. I’d just not refer to them as the ‘majority’. They really aren’t. They have the majority of political leverage right now, but in truth, they aren’t the majority of Americans.
Ah, then they will really start in on “Religious Liberty”, perhaps they will finally understand that religious freedom is not about making insisting everyone follow your religion, but true religious freedom is about respecting other peoples and allowing them to follow their tenets. I am not holding my breath though. This has been going on since the Mayflower landed in Plymouth. Peace…………..
Thank you, John, for saying what everyone in the USA needs to hear. 100% percent of this is 100% percent truth.
One day, when you get a chance, I would love you to write something about the embrace of lies by this bully and all those cowards. Inventing a massacre in Bowling Green. Inventing chaos in Sweden that doesn’t exist. Are just two of the many.
Thank you, Gloriamarie, I would like it also if he would write something on the Fake News, and how he gets a pass when he tells out and out lies, like the two you mentioned above. I don’t get it, how anyone can hold their head up and still support this man. He lies. Not bending the truth, just plain out and out lies. What I would like to know is how would anyone can know if he was being truthful. Perhaps if his lips aren’t moving. Peace………..
Thank you John. I have thought that Trump was a bully since the first time I saw him as a candidate.
Throughout history there has always been bullies. President Trump just happens to be the bully with the most power now. He is just particularly distasteful as the face of America even though we have never had a “perfect” President.
Republicans have been bullies – Democrats have been bullies. It seems over time most people with power become bullies in their own way from the thug with a gun to some teachers, to some church leaders, to some of the wealthy, to some corporations, to the government. I truly believe absolute power corrupts absolutely for the majority. I hope I am wrong.
Evidently it must be some human failing that many succumb to. The only hope is that more humans can hold on to their moral fiber than those who cannot. Of course if it goes the other way, if everyone becomes a bully that will be the cannibalization of the world. No bully likes another bully who may be stronger than him or her and has the power to humiliate them – their worst fear.
I think the GOP is just afraid of him, and afraid for their own careers. That will change, I think, as their constituencies confront them, but straying from the party line has consequences.
I just think the Strange-Haired one just enjoys the adulation. By tapping into this sink of outrage, he achieves what he wants.
This ugliness is a human reaction to change, and we’ve had a lot of that. It’s not just the social changes and I don’t really think they’re driving it; the changes in technology have been stunningly fast. Changes in medicine are coming so fast that nobody can keep up with it. And people are deeply unsettled by change of any sort, good or bad. Immigrants are just an easy-to-see target, as they have always been.
I’m not approving the unrest, just trying to understand it. Is it also possible that these furious people were mistreated as children? I’d bet so.
Afraid of him? Not yet. To those who would destroy what they perceive as a grossly overreaching government, he is a useful idiot, distracting the culture warriors while the real work goes on in the shadows, late at night and on weekends, without vetting or challenge because it is hidden.
The trouble is, in a digital age, not only do things move quickly, nothing is as secret as it once was. When the leaks cut too deeply and often, when the mistakes pile up too high, when the useful idiot’s mastery of our desire to be entertained at the lowest level fails to have an effect, then the culture warriors will need to fear the angry idiot. And then we will need to be ready for the deluge.
“And then we will need to be ready for the deluge.” What is that going to look like, Mosswings?
I ask because I think all we have seen this past month is chaotic unconstitutionality. Seems to me we are already being deluged, so I was wondering what form you think is coming. Seems to me we already have evidence of high crimes and misdemeanors.
Dear John Pavlovitz:
Donald Trump is weak.
Donald Trump is a face.
Donald Trump is not the United States Chief Executive Officer.
Look to the power behind the face.
The elevation of Lt. Gen. H. R. McMaster as national security advisor strengthens the grip of the US military on the US Government.
The choice of McMaster for this position further weakens Trump’s position for preferring China over Russia for the next, discretionary major war.
The lavish media praise for Trump’s choice of Lt. Gen. H. R. McMaster shows the complete abandonment of basic democratic principles such as civilian control of the military.
Whether lying on your back, or kicking and screaming, you are going to war. The ruling class is absolutely determined to drag the world into a third world war.
Does this matter enough to anyone even to address it?
Blessings!
I feel like a broken record but I say it again, Thank you, John, for pointing out and writing what I see and know with far more eloquence than I could muster. This man has been a bully all his life. If people took the time to research this man’s life they would know. He got shipped away as a child because he was a hateful, mean and hurtful bully. He has had his fathers money to protect him from being called a thug but that is what he is. I hope I live long enough to see him unmasked and shown exactly what a black heart he has. Peace…………..
Amen, Kathleen.
John, I agree with your thoughtful, meaningful and truthful commentary. Thank you for helping to put into words the utter madness in this country of ours right now.
I remember being bullied by a girl in my neighborhood when I was a kid. One day I’d finally had enough and retaliated by twisting her arm behind her back. She went home bawling and never bothered me again. We need to twist some arms (metaphorically, of course), and the bullies will go back under their rocks.
Thank you for your insights. I have bookmarked this article.
To build a pipeline is “bullying.”
Wow.
I thought “Donald Trump Is The Devil” posts were done, and maybe the pastor would get back to being a pastor (if he ever was one).
I support what Trump is doing and I’m not a “bully” and I disagree that Trump is bullying anyone with his policies. Perhaps the good pastor would consider the worse-than-bullying that occurs in clinics across the country. By reading between the lines, however, in this post Pavlovitz has declared war on the unborn. It’s clear now that his allegiance is to the abortionists.
If I’m a “bully” for being with trump in “assailing the rights of women to have autonomy over their bodies,” i.e., the right to destroy innocent life in the womb, then Pavolvitz, in his defense of this injustice, is a “killer.”
Just so you won’t make your snide remarks about people talking about you and not at you. You Sir are a bully. So I am not surprised that you have sided with the powers that be right now. Just the fact that you can’t see that taking land away from people, sacred land, that they were assured was theirs, to kill some more of the planet, run roughshod over everyone as not bullying is telling. So don’t bother answering because I’m done. You do nothing but bully.