The Bully’s Pulpit

 

Bully vs Bully Pulpit

Bully pulpit comes from the 26th U.S. President, Theodore Roosevelt, who observed that the White House was a bully pulpit. For Roosevelt, bully was an adjective meaning "excellent" or "first-rate"—not the noun bully ("a blustering, browbeating person") that's so common today. Roosevelt understood the modern presidency's power of persuasion and recognized that it gave the incumbent the opportunity to exhort, instruct, or inspire. He took full advantage of his bully pulpit, speaking out about the danger of monopolies, the nation's growing role as a world power, and other issues important to him. Since the 1970s, bully pulpit has been used as a term for an office—especially a political office—that provides one with the opportunity to share one's views. - - Merriam Webster

Social media has become the place where much local information is shared. Howard County, with no local television or radio station, and a newspaper which is shrinking by the minute, relies almost entirely on social media to keep community members informed. Therefore it’s not at all surprising to see regular communication from County Council members, County Government, and the County Executive on social media. Specifically, we see the County Executive use Facebook to “exhort, instruct, or inspire” . It is an accepted part of the mission of the office, and using social media to do so just makes sense.

Since his election in 2018, County Executive Ball has done just that, using what Roosevelt called a”bully pulpit.” For example: anyone following his account on social media has seen him exhort the community to support small businesses, instruct on how Howard Countians could be safest during the COVID-19 pandemic, and inspire us to make our county a more accepting, equitable, and inclusive place. 

Being the elected executive of Howard County provides him with an excellent opportunity (i.e., a bully pulpit) to communicate the goals of County Government as well as its day-to-day operations. It allows him to shine a light on businesses, organizations, and individuals whose actions make our county a better place. Communication is a part of the job. 

Yesterday I was yet again struck by a different sort of communication which has been at work since Dr. Ball was sworn in to office. Let’s call it “the Bully’s Pulpit.”

Almost as soon as a post appears on Facebook, a host of trolls shows up to mock, harass, belittle, disparage, rant. If this were taking place in the physical world, these people would be showing up at every event, heckling loudly, throwing things, spitting, perhaps attempting to storm the lectern.In fact, it seems that their goal is to aggressively seize the pulpit for their own purposes. Clearly they find not being at the center of attention deeply threatening.

It’s a kind of online violence. It is not a simple expression of differing points of view. It has no interest in an intelligent exchange of ideas. Over the past three years this persistent trolling has brought a degree of ugliness into so many of the County Executive’s posts that it was necessary for him to address it directly on his Facebook page.

We understand there have been concerns regarding the public forum on our Facebook page and many members of our community expressed interest in the deletion of inflammatory and/or offensive comments. Howard County Government allows members of the public to comment on this page on matters of public interest which results in the creation of a public forum. The First Amendment under the Constitution protects comments posted in a public form, with certain limited exceptions (examples: "true threats," defamation, incitement to commit crimes, etc.).  

 

We cannot delete public comments protected by the First Amendment, even if they are offensive to a particular group or individual. Howard County Government reserves the right to delete or remove comments such as advertisements, solicitations, other commercial speech, posts that contain malware or other links that pose a cyber-security risk.

As I waded through yet another targeted attack I spotted a piece of information that I thought it worthwhile to share with my readers. Amidst the vituperative and unfounded accusations was a strong endorsement of Republican candidate Allan Kittleman. 

There you have it. Mr. Kittleman is the preferred candidate of the folks who have used “the Bully’s Pulpit”to do just that: bully. The fact that Kittleman has accepted the call of these very people to run against Calvin Ball is pretty much everything you need to know. It is their demand he has responded to. It is their call he hears. Kittleman’s name is not on the Facebook posts but his fingerprints are very likely on their message.

Leading the County in a time of pandemic has to be exhausting and discouraging. While criticism is a part of the life of any elected official, what this County Executive has been subjected to crossed the line of acceptable behavior a long, long time ago. Yet he keeps going, doing the job he was elected to do.  I’m grateful that Dr. Ball has shown the kind of leadership outlined in this well-known Teddy Roosevelt quote:

Do what you can, with what you have, where you are. - -  Theodore Roosevelt