Like her or hate her; feel sorry for Cliven Bundy or not; feel like poor Bundy is being taunted or not; want to take his bullhorn and platform away or not, Maureen Dowd in a New York Times opinion piece explains why it is not about Bundy, but rather about how “the Republican fringe has gone mainstream,” from “cockfighting rallies to online gun sweepstakes to cracks about ‘wetbacks’ to waxing nostalgic about slavery.”
I humbly agree with her. Poor, misunderstood, exploited Bundy — and he may be all that — is not the issue. If it is not Bundy making hateful, bigoted, injurious utterances, it is someone else — thousands of “someone elses,” many in positions of leadership.
Bundy is just manifesting the symptoms of a frightening moral and ethical malaise gripping the righteous right.
As Dowd implies, it is not really about Bundy, but more about “the semicircle of gun-toting and conspiracy-minded supporters who had gathered round to hear it.” Where was the negative reaction to Bundy’s words among them?
It is about how “Conservatives saw no hypocrisy in rallying around Bundy for breaking the law, refusing to pay between $1 and $2 a month per cow to graze on federal land, while they refuse to consider amnesty for illegal immigrants committing Acts of Love.”
It is more about Chris McDaniel, a G.O.P. Mississippi state senator writing blog posts “blaming the ‘welfare dependent citizens of New Orleans’ for not finding higher ground during Katrina, charging that ‘Mexicans’ entering the country are hurting ‘our culture’ and calling racial profiling of Muslims a ‘victory for common sense.’”
It is about “the younger stars of the G.O.P.” racing to “embrace a racist anarchist lionized by Sean Hannity…it underscores the party’s lack of leadership or direction.”
It is, again in Dowd’s words, “a measure of how hallucinogenic conservatives are that they are trying to re-litigate slavery during the second term of the first African-American president.”
It is not about poor, old, fumbling Bundy making foolish statements. It is about all those others who agree with — celebrate — his bigotry.
It is not about “using” poor, old Bundy’s bigotry for political gain, because shining the light of day on bigotry is not political “gain,” it is just the decent thing to do.
Bundy taking the “national platform’ given him by his Fox buddies, is not the “other side’s” fault or problem.
Exposing and condemning prejudice and racism — whether by poor, old Bundy or by the rich and famous and powerful — is not “unethical,” it is the right thing to do. Just sorry that poor, old Bundy got caught in the middle.
