Bully in Chief

Nobody likes a bully. We ask our public schools not to tolerate bullying and we teach our children to stand up for what is right in the face of intimidation. Yet President Obama is acting like a bully when it comes to the recent directive to public schools across this country regarding sexual identity. Much like a bully, President Obama threatened the use of force and intimidation over federal support dollars for public schools if his way, his ideology, is not followed, adhered to, and implemented.

However, aside from his intimidation tactics the President's actions are flagrantly unconstitutional. First, he chose to issue a directive which has no force of law and was also completely dismissive of our separation of powers and the legislative branch. To be clear, no discussion was had, no effort to work out our differences through a public debate was made, nor opportunity to sit down, discuss the issue and work towards a solution with the legislative branch occurred, none at all.

Further, his directive attempts to undermine the 10th amendment of the constitution over non-compliance with federal education law under Title IX that prohibits sexual discrimination in school programs under that section. His goal in this effort was to empower federal bureaucracies, in this case the Departments of Justice and Education to enforce this edict so they could completely redefine "sex" to mean "gender identity".

Further, the President's threat to withhold public education funding flies in the face of so many speeches, press conferences, and campaign rallies where he emphasized the importance of education to prepare our children to become the tolerant economic leaders of the 21st Century. And, on several occasions, the President stressed education as the bridge between social and economic differences within our country.

Often the only way to respond to a bully is to stand tall and firm on your ground. As such, I have helped co-author new legislation that blocks the Department of Education and Department of Justice from tying federal funding of local schools to compliance with this directive. Additionally, we have also co-drafted a complete defunding of this new order from the President, blocking any federal taxpayer dollars from being used to enforce it.

I have heard from a number of people about their outrage over this issue and understandably so, the public schools in our communities should not be bullied into abiding by policies that the majority of people do not agree with, especially when there are no constitutional grounds for them, zero.

The parents, teachers, and administrators that have reached out to me with their frustration is exactly what I would have expected, because they know you have to stand up to a bully if things are ever going to change. However, maybe that bullying would be better received if it was actually used on nations which house our terrorist enemies or declare they are going to bring war on the United States, and not here at home in our schools.

With 230 days left in office, it is clear that President Obama is using every second he has left to enact his liberal agenda against the will of the American people and despite our constitutional framework. I intend to do everything in my power to stop the President from threatening the safety and decency of the overwhelming majority of children in public schools across Southeast and south central Missouri and our nation.

We are right to stand up to bullies, arguably it is an inherent American trait, but the only assurance we have to deal with in standing together now is that we all know in very short time this bully can easily be ignored.