Over the past couple weeks, I’ve had my share of fun at Cliven Bundy’s expense- not that I’m unique in that. He’s an easy target (and a comedy gold mine). His predilection for spouting off incoherently in front Fox News Channel cameras is the stuff of a PR consultant’s nightmares. There’s little doubt but that Bundy’s a hypocrite and opportunist looking to “get something for nothing.” Tha sort of freeloading seems to be a problem only when Liberals do it. When Libertarians/Teabaggers/Sovereign Citizens do it…well, it’s just real ‘Mericans asserting their rights as free men. When self-interest is wrapped in “liberty” and “freedom,” it’s still self-interest…and in Bundy’s case, it comes with a side order of hypocrisy and racism.
It’s easy to dismiss Bundy as merely an idiot and/or zealot looking for his 15 minutes of fame. In raising an “army” dedicated to his “right” to graze his cattle gratis on public land, he’s seizing on a twisted historical doctrine more than 100 years old. While he may be an intellectual midget given to interpreting history and the law to his advantage, Bundy’s merely the latest in a long line of government-hating zealots dating back to the Reconstruction era and the Posse Comitatus Act of 1878. The theory is that the 14th Amendment destroyed the last “real” American government. Posse comitatus is the twisted legal device dreamed up by those convinced the federal government shouldn’t be allowed into the South to protect African-Americans from racist Whites.
Bill Maher: "was it that hard to predict" that Cliven Bundy was "going to be a huge racist?" http://t.co/ODNCa5xkO0
— Huffington Post (@HuffingtonPost) April 26, 2014
I could go on at some length, but Rachel Maddow does a spot-on job of putting Cliven Bundy and his fellow travelers into historical perspective. The fact is that Bundy and his allies are violent, hypocritical, and supremely self-centered. They demand the benefits the federal government confers upon them while accepting none of the concomitant responsibilities- chiefly, paying taxes. It’s not “Freedom” and “Liberty” these folks are after, it’s a White Christian paradise on Earth purged of those who don’t look, think, and believe as they do.
To put it mildly, they’re thugs and criminals using their selective interpretation of history and the law to support their racism and zealotry. THAT’S what Sean Hannity and the rest of the talking heads at Fox News Channel are trumpeting as a patriotic rebellion against an oppressive government.
If Cliven Bundy is your idea of a patriot, I’d submit that you need to check the definition of “patriotism.” Seriously.
