Nevada rancher a "patriot" one day and a "racist crank" the next

Cliven Bundy is a Nevada cattle rancher who for decades has refused to pay the grazing fee that the U. S. government charges to let cattle graze on federally owned land.   Even though it is a bargain (about 10% of what private land-owners charge), Bundy says he does not recognize the government's ownership of the land, so he refuses to pay.  He now owes more than $1 million dollars, accumulated over two decades of his cattle "on the government dole," so to speak.

When the feds finally tried to confiscate his cattle, Bundy called out his milita friends and there was an armed standoff between right-wing, gun-toting, "freedom" spouting, angry men who saw themselves as standing up to the big, bad, illegimate federal government that is trying to bully them.   Harry Reid called them "domestic terrorists," a label they quickly adopted as their own.

This might have gone unnoticed were it not for FoxNews and Sean Hannity ampimg up the furor, continually showing the stand-off, and praising Bundy for being willing to fight for his beliefs.   Nevada Sen. Dean Heller called him a patriot;  other Republicans likened his dissent to the civil disobedience of Gandhi and Thoreau.   Others called it "the beginning of taking back America."  Paul Rand, Marco Rubio, Rick Perry all offered support. 

The microphone went to Bundy's head, apparently, and yesterday he decided to share some more of his "wisdom."   He put forth his ideas about "the Negro," in what was an ignorant, bigoted, racist rant against people who live on government subsidies, abort their babies, and put their young men in jail.  

He thinks the problem is that they've become enslaved to the public dole.   They'd have been better off if they had learned to "pick cotton."  He even questioned whether this form of "slavery" was worse than the other kind.  At least then they had their families, their work, and their gardens.

Strong stuff.   Hannity couldn't run away from Bundy fast enough, calling the remarks racist and beyond repugnant.   Heller's spokesman said he found the comments "appalling" and condemned them "in the most strenuous way."

But here's the thing.   In a little less raw form, Bundy is saying what the right-wing Republican politicians have been saying.   As Jamelle Boule of the Weigel political blog put it: 

In short, the only difference between Bundy and a whole host of conservatives is that the renegade rancher isn't sophisticated enough to couch his nonsense in soundbites and euphemism.

You think that goes too far?    Check out the title of Rand Paul's latest book:  Government Bullies:  How Everyday Americans Are Being Harassed, Abused and Imprisoned by the Feds.

This is not patriotism.   This is anarchy.    The Rand Pauls and Ted Cruzs and Rick Perrys are willing to play with the anarchist message in order to energize their base.   First, it's not a winning strategy for them, because they'll lose the independents;  and they can't win with only their base.   

Second, it's dangerous.   I do not think that Paul and Cruz and Perry are ready for an armed stand-off with the feds -- but they're playing with the fire in the belly of those who are that foolish and easily riled.

Ralph