Yesterday we learned that Mitt Romney, in addition to being a vulture capitalist and a rank political opportunist, was also a schoolyard bully. This is my unsurprised face.
John Lauber, a soft-spoken new student one year behind Romney, was perpetually teased for his nonconformity and presumed homosexuality. Now he was walking around the all-boys school with bleached-blond hair that draped over one eye, and Romney wasn’t having it.
“He can’t look like that. That’s wrong. Just look at him!” an incensed Romney told Matthew Friedemann, his close friend…
A few days later, Friedemann entered Stevens Hall off the school’s collegiate quad to find Romney marching out of his own room ahead of a prep school posse shouting about their plan to cut Lauber’s hair. Friedemann followed them to a nearby room where they came upon Lauber, tackled him and pinned him to the ground. As Lauber, his eyes filling with tears, screamed for help, Romney repeatedly clipped his hair with a pair of scissors.
… “It happened very quickly, and to this day it troubles me,” said Buford, the school’s wrestling champion, who said he joined Romney in restraining Lauber. Buford subsequently apologized to Lauber, who was “terrified,” he said.
… “He was just easy pickin’s,” said Friedemann, then the student prefect, or student authority leader of Stevens Hall, expressing remorse about his failure to stop it.
… Friedemann, guilt ridden, made a point of not talking about it with his friend and waited to see what form of discipline would befall Romney at the famously strict institution. Nothing happened.
Read the entire article for more exciting tales of Mitt’s teenage years.
Romney claims that he doesn’t remember the incident, but we all know that he does. We know this not just because the man is a proven liar, but because when a person carries out an act of violence like that, they remember it. Probably with a lot of pride.
The only way I would accept that Mitt doesn’t remember that particular incident is if there were so many times that he bullied and assaulted classmates he didn’t like and thought were gay that he just can’t separate one from another. Either way, the picture is pretty grim.
And not all that surprising.
Consider the kind of man Romney is. He has not a bit of compassion, empathy, or regard for people other than himself and the people he holds dear1. He casually destroys people’s lives, makes their jobs disappear, then laughs and makes jokes about it. His ever-changing political stances prove that he doesn’t hold values, he pretends them, and says whatever is politically expedient no matter who it hurts.
And he knows he can get away with it, because he’s been getting away with imposing his will on others in a violent manner since school. No teacher, no principal, no student challenged or punished him for what he did to that kid. He probably went home to his family and received praise for it.
Mitt Romney is a perfect example of why the problem of bullying needs to be addressed at all times, wherever it happens. Schools need to take responsibility, parents need to take responsibility. And this is for the good of the victim of the bullying as much as the bully themselves. Because, if gone unchecked, that bully may grow up to think victimization is acceptable. Which means that more people have to suffer because of the bully’s lack of empathy or restraint.
Any time anyone wants to give me an excuse for why they won’t take steps to stop bullying, whether it be because of some myth about the victims needing to “man up” or some bullshit about not having enough resources to deal with it, I am going to point at the nearest picture of Mitt Romney and say “people like you are the reason why Mitt Romney is the man he is. If you admire him, then you’re just as bad. If you recoil from that thought, stop making excuses and address this problem.”
Mitt Romney Inadvertantly Teaches Us A Lesson About The Long Term Effects Of Bullying -- Originally posted at The Angry Black Woman
Footnotes
- And it is apparently limited to people. Just look at what he did to his poor dog.
Wonder if anyone who took part in any fraternity / sorority hazing in the past will ever be considered for President in the future? That seems to be the ultimate in bullying.
“Some things are not forgivable. Deliberate cruelty is not forgivable. It is the most unforgivable thing in my opinion, and the one thing of which I have never, ever been guilty,” – A Streetcar Named Desire, Tennessee Williams.
Contrary to Williams, I do think that the stuff we do as teenagers we should eventually be forgiven for. Romney’s behavior was despicable, and at 18 he should have been smart enough to know better.
But as you say, the lack of compassion and empathy — particularly appalling in someone who was born to truly incredible wealth an privilege — seems to carry on to this day.
He may be lying about not remembering; I have no way to tell. But it is not unusual for bullies, and Mitt Romney at the age of ~17 was definitely a bully, to forget all about the traumas they inflict. The victim remembers forever, the bully – many years later – looks blank and says ‘I did that? Geez, I was such a jerk.’
However, I do not think that an openminded reading of Romney’s biography supports the rather extreme picture of his character you have drawn here. Yes, he was a bully and an asshole – 50 years ago. I think it extremely unlikely for any person, even the most totally unreflective, to make zero progress over five decades of a full life, and Romney’s history speaks of many episodes where it is clear that he learned and changed. People in his life say that after prep school, he matured and mellowed rather quickly. There are a lot of people who are jerks as teenagers who are perfectly delightful adults; I doubt that you’re ever going to be persuaded that Romney is perfectly delightful, but I hope you’ll eventually see that he is not particularly a monster.
As for the dog story…President Obama sends along a strong telepathic message for you and any of his other supporters. Please stop bringing up dogs. It’s not a winning issue for the President.
Robert, I think for me, the problem is not that Romney was a bully when he was a teenager. I agree with you that people change over time and hopefully become better, kinder people.
The problem is the Romney of today didn’t say, “I did that? Geez, I was a jerk.” He said, “I don’t remember it. I did engage in hijinks.” In other words, he still, all this time later, thinks that the bullying he engaged in was just fun and games. In all these years of “maturing and mellowing” as you put it, he has never grokked on to the fact that his fun is the same thing as bullying. And in light of it becoming public, he still doesn’t see it as anything he should take responsibility for. Even the sorry he offered was a generic “if I did something wrong” kind of apology.
“If someone shows you who they are believe them.” –Maya Angelou
I was the victim of my brother’s bullying for many years, from the time I was small. He apparently does not remember it; my sister thinks it was “funny” and was pleased when one of her own kids did the same thing. My parents just brushed it off.
It’s very hard when your experiences are totally invalidated because people want the bully’s approval but don’t care about yours.
He has since finally apologized, saying “I didn’t know how difficult that was for you”, and having had some difficult life experiences, has finally learned some compassion and empathy. My sister, though, thinks I should just “get over it”., but it’s really hard when the people who were supposed to love you the most made you feel unsafe and insecure from the time you were a toddler.
PS We’re all in our 50s.
The victim remembers forever, the bully – many years later – looks blank and says ‘I did that? Geez, I was such a jerk.’
A shame Romney didn’t say that, or anything like it. ‘I don’t remember it and I’m sorry if you were hurt by it and it was maybe just hijinx gone too far’ is not what a repentant bully says.
And as has been said over and over, the issue isn’t that Romney was a bully decades ago; the issue was that he doesn’t appear to give a fuck about having been a bully.
But he’s a “Proven liar”!
Because as we all know the world is divided into liars, who lie, and non-liars, who don’t.
I’m officially voting for Mitt Romney. I was skeptical at first, but now I am convinced. This trend of long haired men needs to be brought to an end.
Seriously though this is no different than what the military and every football team in America used to do. The first thing you get when you join the military is a proper haircut. When you join the football team the coach gives you a week to cut your hair or your off the team. (it used to be if you didn’t cut your hair right away the team would cut it for you, but that is considered hazing now so it doesn’t happen, but when mitt romney was in school it wasn’t.)
If you wanna argue for Obama as president find a real argument not this school yard bs.
The difference between Romney and G.W. Bush is that Romney was smart enough to grow out of simple bullying and become a wealthy and respected sociopath. Bush just stayed a bully.