Obama's Dangerous, Futile Anti-Bullying Crusade

[Geee]

American Thinker:

I have long suspected that deep within the Obama White House there exists a super-secret agency dedicated to undermining the America cherished by most Americans. Probably innocuously called something like the "Office of Special Projects," its subversive mission is as follows. First, uncover some must-solve "problem" that, supposedly, requires an immediate government solution; second, make sure that "solving" this phony problem will greatly expand federal power regardless of constitutional constraints; third, the end result should be an army of meddling bureaucrats; and finally, high-minded aims aside, solutions will fail, but expanded federal power and bloated payrolls will be forever.

Though the aforementioned is speculative, it might as well exist; consider the Obama administration's recent initiative to stop school bullying.

The Constitution is crystal-clear -- the national government lacks any authority in state and local education. Even the 1958 National Defense Education Act that mobilized U.S. scientific talent, enacted post-Sputnik I, drew congressional ire as unwarranted federal meddling. After the 1960s Washington might assist school districts for specific purposes -- e.g., helping the disadvantaged -- but micro-managing the school was, and correctly so, deemed unconstitutional.

Obama's anti-bullying campaign violates these longstanding principles, but alas, nobody seems to care. Who wants to be pro-bully?

Some background. Bullying is part of human nature. All social groups, including chimpanzees and dogs, have social hierarchies enforced with beatings, intimidation, insults, and favoritism. Eliminating bullying is not at all different from Soviet efforts at undermining the family or stamping out religion -- ideologically driven re-engineering of deeply rooted human nature. In the battle for survival, hierarchically organized groups undoubtedly defeated their disorganized egalitarian rivals.

Nevertheless, society has developed norms to handle conflicts lest these battles escalate to debilitating levels. Traditional conflict-reduction mechanisms include physical separation, the intervention of higher authority, or strict rules to dampen conflict. In the old West, for example, real men did not bully women and children, and if they did, other men stepped in. "Pick on somebody your own size" sums it up. It was no accident that the six-shooter was called "the equalizer." If bullying escalated, there was recourse to the law.