Good question
(Daily Caller) I haven’t been following the Cliven Bundy case because, believe it or not, southwestern grazing disputes have never been among my interests. I know the Daily Caller has done stories about him because I’ve seen the headlines, but I haven’t followed the whole thing. I haven’t written a word about him before today. I don’t care.
Notice: I haven’t written anything about him or the situation, either. The only references are in link posts.
But now that this Bundy fellow has publicly said things that have offended a lot of black people, suddenly, he represents everybody to the right of Karl Marx. Suddenly I’m obliged to have an opinion about him.
If you want to know what I think about some rancher in Nevada, I tend to agree with the always delightful and perceptive Kira Davis. Be warned: I’m told she isn’t a proper African-American because she’s a conservative. Be that as it may, here she’s 100% correct.
That’s a hell of a good point. Jim goes on to note
Like Kira said, it’s not about one guy. It’s about the media abusing their power to stifle dissent against government control. Just ask anybody who’s been raked over the coals for daring to complain about their health insurance. Ask Joe the Plumber. Ask Ben Carson. Ask Carrie Prejean. Ask anybody who inconveniences the left.
It’s also about The Government sending tons of agents, armed with automatic weapons and sniper rifles, dressed like storm troopers, to a ranch, taking his cattle, and even killing his cattle.
Bundy doesn’t represent me. He doesn’t represent most of us. Why did he say what he said? I don’t know. Is he a racist? I don’t know. I don’t know him. I’ve ignored most of the news on this issue. The only article I read was this one from Powerline. Of course, every lefty is attempting to say that Bundy is the ultimate representative of Republicans, Conservatives, Tea Party members, etc.
Does Bundy have hate in his heart, hating Black people? I don’t know. Has anyone asked him? Or is he just a normal guy who speaks his mind in an inarticulate manner? I do not know. Not everyone speaks politispeak. What Bundy said was idiotic, foolish, and perhaps bigoted. He did have a point, though: how are Blacks doing? Many of them are stuck in poverty, living in government housing, with little in the way of job prospects (Blacks have a higher than average unemployment rate, especially amongst Black youths). So many are reliant on government, while being surrounded by crime, violence, gangs, sexual assault. Are they better off than under slavery? Of course! No one can sell them, or beat them legally, or split them up. Now the families are split up by gangs and prison and violence. Does it make Bundy a racist for saying what he said? We’d have to look into his heart to see if he hates Blacks, or just said something incredible stupid.
Anyhow, this will surely be my one and only post on the subject. Because this is not something I care enough to write about. RS McCain wrote
One of the joys of being an independent blogger is that you don’t have to pay attention to anything that doesn’t interest you, or about which you have nothing helpful to say. At least 90% of what Fox News and talk radio spend their time blabbering about falls into that category for me. It’s not that those stories aren’t important. Rather the question is, what’s the point in me becoming the 143rd blogger to add my two cents on a particular story, unless I have something to say that hasn’t already been said better by someone else?
This “value-added†approach to blogging explains why I haven’t had anything to say about the Cliven Bundy BLM confrontation. There were a couple of times in recent days when I almost blogged about it, but then something else would catch my eye  – who can resist a LESBIAN POLYGAMY headline? — and I’d forget about it. But so what? Everybody was blogging about the Bundy story, and the value of my two cents would have been negligible anyway.
Boom. Bundy doesn’t represent me. But, when The Government comes for you, maybe because you changed the pond out back, or bought a house in the wilderness and The Government doesn’t like you using ATVs to get there, you’ll remember the bigger point.
More: The Lonely Conservative notes, regarding Bundy being the top story on Memeorandum (and everywhere else)
The current governor of Illinois tweeted a link to an article comparing black Republicans to Jewish Nazis and not much was made of his endorsement of such sentiments. Despite some outrage in the Jewish community, Governor Quinn is still the guest of honor at an event honoring victims of the holocaust and the last time I checked he still hasn’t apologized.
Strange how little news coverage that’s getting. Make sure to read the rest.
A wealthy rancher in Nevada suckled at the American taxpayer teat for 2 decades, subsidized to the tune of $1 million. This is typical government-business collusion of crony capitalism, rewarding a minority of wealthy folks at the expense of taxpayers and other American businesspeople who play by the rules.
Mr. Bundy lost multiple court cases but refused to honor the outcomes, continuing to allow his cattle to trespass on land that he did not own or lease. In March 2014, the BLM legally began to round up the trespassing cattle. In April 2014, the BLM suspended the roundup and agreed to return the cattle, to defuse a potential violent confrontation in the face of armed protesters who had blocked I-15 for hours and had made plans to bravely shield themselves with women if violence broke out.
The case will go back to the courts for resolution.
FOX News lionized Mr. Bundy for his extreme anti-government stance until yesterday morning when Bundy clearly articulated what most far-right extremists believe but prefer not to discuss in decent society. FOX News is now aggressively (hypocritically?) ignoring Mr. Bundy. I guess FOX News and Sean Hannity had used up Mr. Bundy’s notoriety and his ability to make them money.
More than one pundit pointed out the irony (hypocrisy?) of Mr. Bundy and his supporters claiming that government subsidies are bad for “Negroes” but that they will violently (hypocritically?) defend the $50,000/yr in subsidies Bundy has received for 20 years.
Mr. Bundy didn’t change the pond out back, he ran his cattle on land he didn’t own for 20 years, degrading the land and used this government subsidy to enrich himself. This hardly seems fair to fellow ranchers who play by the rules. Or are the other hard working ranchers just suckers for not getting their subsidies?
Thanks for pointing me to Kira Davis, proper African-American or not. Her views are most welcome in the toxic environment of national news coverage.
Looks like another rightwing poster child has been exposed. Bundy joins a long line
Teach do you think that Bundy should obey the law? Or has he the right to violently oppose the government ?
Do you think that all of us must obey all the laws all the time ?
Carrie Prejean !!! How about that one !!! 8 sex tapes and 30 (tasteful?) nudie pics
Quite the Christian she turned out to be
Joe the (non)Plumber ?? What ever became of him ? Oh yeah he joined the UnitedAuto Workers Union and is now working at one of the Chrysler plants that survived because of Obamas bailout
THE MEDIA. Teach is that still a code word for Jews? If not when did it stop !
Jeff, John,
You guys must just love Bundy. You are able to let your intrinsic hate lose and express just as vile and ignorant statements as those that Bundy made. You will try to understand others that have committed violent acts and said racist things, as long as they are of the proper skin color. But let one of what is perceived to be the conservative camp make a statement and your hate shines forth. Now, how in this world do you know this man is wealthy? As to not following the law, Obama and Holder have said that we can pick and chose what laws to respect. So that is not an issue. Let the hate shine.
Mr. Bundy appears to be a grifter and a hypocrite who thinks it’s OK for him to be a “taker” but not for others. He’s been gaming the system for at least 2 decades so it’s hard to blame his law breaking on Obama and Holder. Bundy was just being honest in his appraisal of the poor, and was relating sentiments that he shares with most conservatives. Did he say anything you disagree with, david?
But Sean Hannity and FOX News seem to have interpreted what Bundy said as damaging, based on their abandonment of him.
Where there’s a disconnect between conservatives and regular Americans is that conservatives think that Bundy’s mistake was semantic – using the words “Negro” and “slave”. Most conservatives agree with his message that the poor are lazy and are “sponging” off the wealthy, and that Democrats are buying their votes.
The main difference between Bundy and the more polished conservatives is Bundy’s honesty.
Jeff,
I have been taking care of poor folks for about 40 years. I find that only about 60% are lazy, the other 40% make consistently very poor choices. So not all are lazy. I went back and listened to Bundy’s little speech and can not understand your hate or your labeling him racist. He clearly is singling out black poor people and feels that their plight is worsened by the War of Poverty. This is a sentiment held by both liberals and conservatives. The man wants to help them by getting the government out. Bundy, like me, has seen the effects of the government intrusion. We both have seen the poor before LBJ’s efforts and after and know that the government is a major problem in helping these people. But as a liberal, you desire to keep them in servitude.