If the media had even a trace of independence, the instant
Chris Christie declared like a dainty blossom trampled roughly, “I am
not a bully,” the throng of reporters would have screamed, “Liar” in a
single voice and hurled their cameras, pens, notepads, recorders,
iPhones and shoes at him, burying his political career.
Then they would have exited the farce and switched to the tape for those at home, showing not the
highlight reel of bullying moments compiled by his own staff to promote the Governor Smackdown
brand, but the warm-up at a Jersey town-hall meeting in 2010 where he
announced to
the audience, with the salivating glee of a hound dog cornering a lame
rabbit, that a bullying moment “could happen right here, ladies and
gentlemen! … Get ready! If you have your own cameras, start rolling!”
No, Christie would vanish without the
browbeating and
thuggery that
are as indelibly linked to his tenure as the Shore is to Jersey. The
real question is not why the press is so sycophantic. It’s why does the
public revere a bully as savior? Why do we no longer pine for the
knight-in-shining-armor, itself a fairytale version of democracy, but
the leather-masked Quasimodo executing justice with cracking bones and
spurting blood, or in Christie’s case, cracking insults and spurting
bile at those swept up in his spectacle of torment?
It’s
because these days Americans have as much familiarity with democracy as
they do with homesteading on the frontier. We like to imagine ourselves
as pioneering statesmen, hewing a sturdy nation from the simple tools
democracy has bequeathed us – messaging, voting, debates, elections,
law-making – but we are lost in the wilderness when it comes to
discovering the essence of democracy.
Democracy is
not the same as the perpetual-motion electoral machine. It’s both a
means and end built on dialogue, respect, relationships and reason, and
it’s everything Christie pummels into submission. But don’t blame the
public for this sorry state of affairs. Our lives are bereft of
democracy. Virtually all schools are authoritarian, as are churches.
Families teeter between parental authority and youthful insubordination.
Few believe consumerism is democratic (but our democracy is
consumeristic). Say “workplace democracy” to anyone at the office and
blank stares is the best reaction you can hope for.
Few
people know how to engage in democratic discussion and dialogue. I’ve
heard the same story from food-justice organizers in Brooklyn,
anti-fracking activists in Ohio, warehouse workers in Chicago, and
home-foreclosure defenders in Oakland. It’s back to basics. Organizing
now means first building community through socializing such as potlucks,
block parties and softball games, and teaching people how to
collectively listen to and discuss ideas with mutual respect.
We’re
at ground zero when it comes to democracy. We feel powerless to stop
oil companies from frying the planet, nuke plants radiating countries,
stripping oceans of life and dumping them full of garbage, and are
unable to help the homeless lying beside foreclosed housing, the sick
dying in the shadow of world-class hospitals, and unemployed millions
desperate for jobs, even shit ones. With government hijacked by the
wealthy, it’s easier to hope an iron-fisted leader can wipe the slate
clean. One who
scapegoats teachers as the cause of high taxes and low-achieving children, and enjoys humiliating them publicly.
The
harsh reality of Christie is not his vile political persona, but the
public enchanted by his bullying and the press who encourages his sadism
by
casting him
as “a tough-talking, problem-solving pragmatist.” Christie may have
muscled Democratic politicians into supporting his re-election bid last
fall, but he won
strong backing from
Democratic voters, allowing him to pursue policies attacking the poor
and public education, and coddling the wealthy and corporations.
Christie
taps into something dark in the American political soul – a desire not
just for order or efficiency, but pleasure in humiliating the weak. Is
it surprising women are a frequent target of his abuse, who are
pathologized in our society as weak?
Like every
bully, Christie crossed the line, or a bridge in his instance. The
silver lining is his presidential ambitions may drown in the
brewing scandal so the whole nation doesn’t have to suffer him degrading women with
blow-job jokes.
But others like Christie will follow in his wake until we realize our
society does not suffer from a lack of authoritarian bullies but a
deficit of grassroots democracy.
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