I have always felt there is a danger into turning a person you have never met into a folk hero. Cliven Bundy being exhibit A of that belief. To start this off, I want to say very clearly that the government overreach and the excessive use of force used by the BLM should be the main issue and anyone with a brain should be scared that our government is willing to do such a thing to a private citizen for a measly million dollars. In terms of our government spending a million dollars in fees is nothing in the grand scheme of things. That said, that doesn't make Mr. Bundy a hero. He is standing by what he believes is right. Which is something that every person should do.
Instead of having a knee jerk reaction to the story that was unfolding in Nevada, we should have taken a step back and talked about the government overreach instead of the personalities involved. For all we know Mr. Bundy is a serial killer who has bodies buried all over his ranch. We don't know. We have no way of knowing because the man is a virtual stranger.
Now, I do believe that somewhere along the line people knew that Bundy was a good person to go after because of his views and personality he could easily be discredited. The fact is that Bundy has no idea to talk to the gotcha media. There is no reason in the world for him to be talking about welfare, it has nothing to do with the issues at hand. The only thing we should be hearing about is grazing fees, grazing rights, and the land that is owned by the federal government. A very excessive amount out in the western part of the country. What are they doing with all that land? Is it constitutional for them to own that much? Do the states involved want to take the land back and the federal government refusing to cede the land to them? Those are real questions that all Americans should have answered. Instead we are now talking about cotton picking, "negroes", and welfare recipients.
I have always felt that slavery and Nazi comparisons are ludicrous. We cannot compare the poverty we have in this country today to what happened during slavery or what happened to the Jews during World War II under Hitler.
His comments:
“I want to tell you one more thing I know about the Negro,” he said. recalled driving past a public-housing project in North Las Vegas, “and in front of that government house the door was usually open and the older people and the kids — and there is always at least a half a dozen people sitting on the porch — they didn’t have nothing to do. They didn’t have nothing for their kids to do. They didn’t have nothing for their young girls to do.
“And because they were basically on government subsidy, so now what do they do?” he asked. “They abort their young children, they put their young men in jail, because they never learned how to pick cotton. And I’ve often wondered, are they better off as slaves, picking cotton and having a family life and doing things, or are they better off under government subsidy? They didn’t get no more freedom. They got less freedom.”
Yes, I am offended by these comments. This shows a complete and utter lack of historical knowledge of what slavery was. Does he believe that the "negro" should be whipped into submission as often happened during slavery? Should the women be raped as again often happened during times of slavery?
What about the large number of whites and Hispanics that collect welfare? Should they learn how to pick cotton too? After all aren't they having less freedom as well?
As expected the people on the left exploded and started calling the word raaaaacist. Now, these statements alone don't mean that Bundy is a racist. A racist is a person who thinks that they are inherently better than others due to skin color. Stereotyping isn't a racist make, it may be stupid and ignorant, but not racist. Most people are guilty of stereotyping. Lets take a look at this comment:
“As a general rule, individuals will sell out the interests of their groups in return for personal benefit…It isn’t just a black thing. Jews collaborated with the Nazis during World War II, helping them to round up their own people in the hopes they’d be the last to go.”
This is from an article that appeared in the Chicago Sun Times written about the black republican candidate for Governor. This article was retweeted by Gov. Quinn, not just once but several times, out to his twitter followers. Does he approve of that statement? Apparently not after some Jewish groups complained, his twitter account deleted the retweets. Erasing away the evidence, or attempting to in any event. Apparently he approves of the notion that black people can only think in one way or they are a traitor to their race. It isn't possible that a person who happens to be black believes in small and limited government. Nope, not even one across this country. They are only about the profit motive or possibly some Sambo who is trying to make nice with white republicans so they will like them. It has never been explained why they would care if white republicans liked them or not if they truly believed that the only way to solve the problems of the black community is more government intervention. After all it has worked so well in places like Detroit and the south side of Chicago. But that matters none. Traitors one and all, there are no other options for the black man.
We are bombarded in this country by politicians and politics pundits with comparisons to Nazi's and slavery. The Nazi's murdered six million people by putting them into gas chambers and ovens. There is nothing even remotely close to happening like that in this country. Slavery was inhumane and brutal. It treated a group of people as nothing more than a piece of property to be done with as the "owner" pleased with zero regard to their humanity. They were somehow less than human and as such could be whipped, beaten, and raped at the whim of the slave owner and his employees. There is nothing about our welfare system that compares to that.
Make no mistake, I am no fan of the welfare system as it is currently set up. I do believe as Bundy does that it can foster dependency and create more problems than it solves. But, that isn't slavery. Slaves had no options. Slaves couldn't find a better job, get more education, go to trade school to better themselves. Welfare recipients can do these things. We can save the argument if they do them for another time, but the reality is that the options are there if they are willing to take advantage of them.
I think it is well past time that both sides of the political aisle stop with the slavery and Nazi comparisons. They are over the top, unwarranted, and simply a way to garner an emotional reaction that stops critical thinking on very important issues. It stops speech. That is what these comparisons are designed to do, regardless of your motivation behind them.
My advice to Mr. Bundy is to stop talking to the media until he hires a seasoned PR person who knows how to handle the gotcha media. He is in no way equipped to handle this on his own.
Sadly all people now are going to remember is the label of racist. All the good he did to bring the attention to the important issue of federal land holdings has been all but washed away. Exactly what The New York Times had in mind.
It is also time that people stop calling a perfect stranger a hero until you know a little something about their character. Both extremes of the political aisle are far too willing to make a perfect stranger into the poster boy/girl for a cause they care about. It has backfired over and over again as history shows. We would all be better off to take a step back, look at the facts, research things on our own, and not have a knee jerk emotional reaction about a person who will eventually have human failings, because we all do.
Stick to the issues and don't get sidetracked. Bundy has done exactly that and what ends up being lost are the issues of excessive government force, land ownership, and the rights of the states. Now we all lose. Now we, as a nation, won't ask the critical question of why the feds thought it was necessary to send in helicopters and snipers over a financial dispute that could have been handled through a lien on his property. If they believe that they are right in their fees, it could have been handled in a more civilized manner. It could have been, but it wasn't. Now the why of that will likely never get answered.
Mr. Bundy keep your opinions about welfare to yourself. No one cares about them, unless they are trying to discredit you and labeled you a racist. You are entitled to your opinion, but that doesn't mean you need to share it with the world.
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