Darcy Burner: Still Whupping Bullies

No one likes a bully, right? Well... no one sane likes a bully. Hitler had fans and there are always sycophants and self-loathers who fall under a bully's sway. But what about cowards who refuse to call a bully out when they see him picking on someone? See no evil, hear no evil... well, not if they hold themselves up for public office. That just isn't good enough. One of the Blue America-endorsed candidates, Darcy Burner, who's running in a new district north and east of Seattle, explains why bully coddling makes our skins crawl.

We need a new rule in Democratic politics: don’t support anyone who won’t stand up to bullies. I’m fed up watching people who are theoretically our allies cave and capitulate to the bullying behavior of Republicans. Giving in to bullies never makes things better; it only makes them bolder and more aggressive.

Let’s take, as an example, the budget battle that’s been playing out in Washington State. Like many parents of school-aged children, I have been particularly concerned about the funding for K-12 education. It’s pretty bad: the Washington State Supreme Court has already ruled that the state legislature is violating the Washington State Constitution by shortchanging education funding. In January, they handed down a ruling which said that the state legislature was required to increase funding-- and explicitly said that they could not make further cuts to education due to the fiscal crisis.

So what did the Republicans in the Washington State Senate do? On Friday, they bullied through a budget that slashed funding for K-12 education, shortchanging it by $82 million compared to the Democratic budget. No debate, no hearings, and no amendments. And three supposedly Democratic state senators caved to let them ram it through. This wasn’t about having discussions across the aisle-- no discussions were allowed. This was just about caving to bullies.

It wasn’t just education that suffered. Their budget also cut $30 million more from higher education when state college and university tuitions have already more than doubled in the last few years; they cut $57 million more from health care; they cut $202 million from the Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF) program (because in this economy, nobody would need the safety net, right?); they cut $88 million in funding for state employees; and they cut $67 million more from the environment.

I, for one, am sick of it. Appeasing bullies is a losing strategy. Unfortunately, there are too many Democrats, in both our state legislature and in Congress, who seem to be all about appeasing whatever extremist agenda the Republicans put forth this week.

My dad likes to tell a story about my first few weeks in first grade. An older boy started picking on me as I walked home from school each day, making threats and increasingly getting physical. One day, my parents heard something going on outside in front of our house. He’d shoved me, and I’d responded by jumping him and pounding on him. After my dad got done laughing at the spectacle of his 40-pound daughter (I was rather small for my age) whupping a boy two years older and thirty pounds heavier, he pulled me off, sent the boy home, and then walked over to explain to the boy’s mother what had happened.

I was never bothered again.

Republicans act like classic bullies; they push and shove and try to use force to take whatever they want. They don’t compromise, they don’t reason, and they don’t care about how much suffering they inflict upon those in their way.

We don’t need Democrats who respond by capitulating and appeasing.

I don't appease bullies. It doesn't work and it sets a terrible precedent. We need to take them on and win.

We'd be very grateful if you'd give Darcy a hand in beating back a challenge from a handful of "business-friendly" conservative Democrats who have never shown any inclination toward fighting for anything except their own career advancement and the special interests that finance them. Darcy would never have been on the list we published this week of craven corporate Democrats who joined the Republicans in Congress to vote for Bush's horrific bankruptcy bill. But the other Democrats in her race... they're just the type.