Republicans Support Bullying

Last week, I’d just finished awarding the Evil Republican of the Week Honors to a guy who said that all liberals hate God, when I ran across this story and thought damn, that would have been a winner.

Rich "Bad is Good" Swier

Well, many Republicans have said and done evil things in the last week, but Tea Party Nation leader Rich Swier held on to win.  His evil deed?  He sent all of his followers an e-mail in favor of High School gay bashing.  Seriously.  In favor.  Here’s an excerpt:

“This is not bullying. It is peer pressure and is healthy. There are many bad behaviors such as smoking, under age drinking and drug abuse that are behaviors that cannot be condoned. Homosexuality falls into this category. Homosexuality is simply bad behavior that youth see as such and rightly pressure their peers to stop it.”

Now, admittedly, I’m kind of sick of the word “bullying.”  There is  harassment, threats and assault.  These are, it should be clear to any decent human being, bad things.

It doesn’t really matter whether the victim is singled out for being gay (or just effeminate), or whether they are picked on for being of an ethnic minority, or just small and kind of nerdy.  Assault is wrong, in every situation, and should not be encouraged.  That’s my point of view.  Most gay people would probably disagree with me, because they DO get singled out.  I’m not trying to diminish their suffering.

The interesting thing about Swiers’ e-mail, to me, is that it shows us who the teabaggers really are.  They are the pricks you knew in school who were a bit bigger and stronger and would grab you by the wrist and smack you up the side of your head with your own hand and then say “Har har, why are you hitting yourself” as if they thought they were being witty.  They are the kids who would say “Are you looking at me?” and if you said no, would reply with “Are you calling me a liar?”

They were assholes then and they grew up to be assholes and now they are a major bloc of voters, and a serious threat to human civilization.

So, congratulations, Rick Swier, you have won this week’s Evil Republican of the Week Award.  I hope you choke on it.