Bundy finally done done it. From the first day I became aware of the standoff and his grassroots militia, I’ve been waiting for him to pull the race card. In one sense this says more about me than it does about him. I stereotyped Bundy as a relic of early American expansionism who learned his trade on the back of a horse in the mold of a generation of Americans who valued principle over law. For Bundy the principle was–and is–profit and eminent domain. Like I said, he is learned of that era, one which saw the Native Americans torn from their land in order to support the arrival of those who now owned America. He wanted to make a profit and paying for the grazing fees Reagan (important to note who made these fees permanent as his loudest supporters tout Reagan as a demi-God) made permanent.
Bundy’s America is one where hard work is valued and blacks are seen in the vein of the rhetoric that made it possible for slavery to continue until only 148 years ago, which given Buny’s advanced age would mean the time of his great grandfather. Cliven Bundy’s America cannot be led by an African-American man–even a likable (as J.K. Rowling famously penned about the mixed races in terms of magical and non-magical) mudblood such as Obama.
That brings us to his comment. Bundy was talking about a time he drove past a housing project and during his comments offered, “I want to tell you one more thing I know about the Negro,” Lets stop and consider his use of ‘Negro’ as a modicum of proof of his old-world affiliation. That isn’t sentimentality so much as it is lack of understanding of the modern terminology. It gets worse from there. He goes on to openly wonder if blacks were better off as slaves. This automatically presupposes a sense of superiority. In other words, if blacks were slaves, would that mean his ‘return’ to a position of power as a slave owner? Later he was given opportunity to retract his statement and said this:
Slowly now the opportunistic republican fat cats are crawling off the Bundy bandwagon like the elderly teeming out of the tour bus to get into the casino. They knew they shouldn’t have been there in the first place, but this was a real opportunity to be part of government while seemingly looking tough on government. They hitched on to the Bundymobile because it was an easy feel good story about how ‘Obama’ was taking away a man’s freedom and ability to work–which is the same story they’ve been trotting for the last two elections. The only problem is they hitched on to someone who reflects too much of the far right base in a time where being a centrist, though not safer by a longshot, is more likely to offer you traction with the larger number of voters.
It was a bad move. 325 politicos have figured it out so far. I’m still waiting to see who doubles down on the Bundy bet. Any takers?
Some Thoughts:
- Been looking forward to writing a piece about the Instagram Effect: covetousness in the digital media age once the mood struck me. I was hoping for a legit article vs. 10 minutes of, well, this. Too late. NPR beat me to it and had a great piece on relative depravation that lays the groundwork of what I wanted to say. Now I gotta wait until I have more to say and maybe some pretty infographic.