Are Cincinnati Elected Officials Being Bullied?
Embattled CPS School Board member, Melanie Bates, claims that she is the victim of “bullying” from the public and is pushing back against “personal” attacks against her. Bates claims her colleagues are also being “bullied” when they receive angry emails, letters and have to listen to angry comments during the school board’s public comment section. If you’re interested why Bates is under fire and many people are calling for her resignation, The Enquirer article linked above can explain it. I also recommend checking out the Nathan Ivey Show (start at around 1 hour and 32 minutes) where he broke the story about Bates publicly saying unsavory things about CPS parents, teachers and a fellow school board member. It’s like a bad car wreck: hard to look away. But I’m not here to discuss what Melanie Bates said or if she should resign (she should), I’m here to investigate these claims of elected officials being bullied by their constituents.
According to the website StopBullying.gov, the exact definition of bullying is as follows:
Bullying is unwanted, aggressive behavior among school aged children that involves a real or perceived power imbalance. The behavior is repeated, or has the potential to be repeated, over time.
But that’s not good enough for me, so I went to the National Center Against Bullying’s website and found their definition for bullying as well:
Bullying is an ongoing and deliberate misuse of power in relationships through repeated verbal, physical and/or social behavior that intends to cause physical, social and/or psychological harm.
Both definitions describe a power imbalance as well as an ongoing and deliberate misuse of power in a relationship. Additionally, the bully (ie the tax payer, parents, teachers etc) would need to be intending to cause physical, social, and/or psychological harm. Do Bates’ claim that she and other elected officials are victims of bullying hold up?
In short, absolutely not. It’s actually quite insulting to claim, as an elected official, that the voters who put you into office are bullying you. One of the core aspects of any elected official’s job is to listen to their constituents and hear their feedback. By claiming you’re a victim of bullying by simply being forced to carry out one of the core functions of your job is laughable and it can be described as something known as minimizing. Bates is minimizing what bullying actually is. When speaking with Nathan Ivey, she compared her plight to students who are bullied in schools. To make this claim is an insult to students all across this country that have actually suffered real bullying. When I was in grade school, I recall a student bullying me. Here’s what real bullying looks like: someone spitting on you, punching, hitting and kicking you and constant malicious verbal abuse over an extended period of time that effect your psyche. As a child, bullying can be extremely traumatic and I will never forget the student that bullied me when I was in the 4th grade.
In summary, I have no sympathy for any elected official who claims to be the victim of bullying by the voters who put them into office. It’s called being held accountable by your constituents. If you can’t stand the heat, get out of the kitchen. Let’s take a brief detour and talk about one of the most controversial elected leaders in our area: Dusty Rhodes. This is a man who is ridiculed online almost daily. What does Dusty do? He pushes back and goes toe-to-toe with his critics, in a mostly respectful way. Say what you want about Dusty, but he can dish it out as much as he can take it and I respect that much more than the woe-is-me act Bates is putting on. Dusty takes heat for tweeting out controversial things while he’s “on the clock” working as the County’s Auditor. Rhodes’ major defense to tweeting out inflammatory Tucker Carlson clips about hordes of immigrant caravans careening towards our southern border is that elected officials are “always on the clock” and do not “punch a time card.” So, if you’re seeking elected office, please know that it’s reasonable for you to get angry phone calls, letters and emails. And believe it or not, it’s actually apart of your job to acknowledge and consider all of the anger and rage of the voters who elected you. Think of the voters as your boss who grading you on your performance. As for Melanie Bates, she surely gets an F.
And for your viewing pleasure, here are some wonderful tweets from our beloved Hamilton County Auditor:
