False bravado

False bravado per the Urban dictionary means “Portraying yourself as much more confident then you are as a defense mechanism.” One of my favorite examples is that of the male gorilla who will beat on his chest and make a ruckus in an attempt to intimidate his opponent. Unlike his human counterpart, the gorilla can usually back up being a blow hard.

I have long grown weary of politicians who intentionally portray a false bravado or faux toughness to appeal to voters. Politicians blowing smoke at people to paint a picture of toughness occurred long before the latest former president. What has always amazed me about this former president is the thing that scares him most in this world is a woman (or man) armed with facts. He would much prefer a name-calling mud fight, as he has a better chance of winning that. It is those pesky facts he fails to study, that get in the way.

His greatest fear is being found out that he really is all about perception and his base of knowledge tends to be far less than portrayed. This is why a false bravado is so important to him. He must look tough and smart. To my earlier point, we must not forget he declined to do one debate if Fox News’ Megyn Kelly was there asking him questions. She was mean to him at the previous Fox debate asking him questions he did not know were coming. We learned much later that the Fox News network had fed him the questions that were to be asked.

I read this morning that Senator Rand Paul is the latest tough guy saying he does not need a vaccine. Fellow Republican and realist Representative Adam Kinzinger mocked this false bravado. Being an eye doctor, Paul believes he can convince people the vaccines are unneeded. I find this to be a dereliction of duty. What is sad is the whole attempt is to mask over the former president’s woeful handling and downplaying of the COVD pandemic that caused more people to die than should have. Even today, too many people do not take this pandemic seriously thanks to this political messaging.

The people who tend to be the brave ones, usually do not need to broadcast that. This is one reason people who have done brave things in wars do not want to share details, as it is too horrific and they were just doing their jobs. A famous baseball pitcher who did well in pressure packed games said something interesting about this. The people who do well under pressure tend to do their jobs at the same level when the pressure mounts; it is others whose performance falls off when the pressure increases. They were just doing this jobs.

That is what we need more of in public service from politicians. Worry less about keeping your job and just do your job. That is all we ask.

Advertisement