Not a single Republican presidential candidate has spoken up as a group of armed men engages in sedition in rural Oregon.
The Bundy clan engaged in a 2014 armed standoff with federal authorities over fees owed to the government for grazing private cattle on public land.
If armed members of Sierra Club or Earth First! staged a protest against climate change or failed Everglades policies and occupied a federal wildlife refuge, what would Republicans say then?
In 2014 Cruz Called The Cliven Bundy Standoff The “Tragic Culmination” Of President Obama’s Use Of “The Jackboot Of Authoritarianism.” “The details of the Bundy matter may be complicated, but I think the reason this issue is resonating in Nevada and Texas and resonating across the country is that for five years, we have seen our liberty under assault. We have seen our liberty under assault from a federal government that seems hell-bent on expanding its authority over every aspect of our lives. Thomas Jefferson famously said the Constitution is meant to serve as chains to bind the mischief of government and we have seen, sadly, our Constitutional liberties eroded under the Obama administration and I think it is in that context that people are viewing this battle with the federal government. We should have a federal government protecting the liberty of the citizens, not using the jackboot of authoritarianism to come against the citizens. And I think this is the unfortunate and tragic culmination of the path that President Obama has set the federal government upon.” [Chad Hasty, 4/22/14]
The Bundy clan engaged in a 2014 armed standoff with federal authorities over fees owed to the government for grazing private cattle on public land.
If armed members of Sierra Club or Earth First! staged a protest against climate change or failed Everglades policies and occupied a federal wildlife refuge, what would Republicans say then?
If environmental activists, armed themselves with weapons, and said they "would not rule out violence" as the Bundy's claim, would the GOP be silent? Of Course Not. Fox News would be orbital.
Does anyone have the slightest idea what Ted Cruz is even talking about? The fact is that the inflammatory rhetoric of GOP candidates running for president plays extraordinarily well with wealthy campaign contributors whose profits depend on manipulating environmental rules and regulations. This is not, however, the message frame used by the GOP.
No, they say the federal government is "over-reaching", encroaching on individual liberties, impinging on constitutional rights.
They don't say they believe American taxpayers should pay for public lands, then pay again to restore those public lands after they have been wrecked by private businesses.
The GOP won't stand up and say that polluting industries are people too, so they have rights to be subsidized so that private shareholders can profit although air and water are made toxic, children sickened, and families wrecked by the cost of healthcare after contracting severe illnesses because toxins in the environment are poorly regulated.
In a 2014 Washington Times interview, Ben Carson said, “These citizens, for America, who really are pretty outstanding people, they become terrorists because you don’t like the fact that they are standing in your way, doing what they have been doing for over a hundred years.” [Washington Times Interview, 4/23/14] Does Ben Carson even know what he is talking about?
How should the American voter feel about Republican candidates who are instigating sedition?
4 comments:
From Terry Tempest Williams:
Heavily armed white men in cowboy hats take over a federal building at Malheur National Wildlife Refuge, and it's not a problem. State and federal officials including the FBI say they "are aware of the situation," but no action is taken. This is more than a double standard, it is an extreme act of violence to the idea of "equal justice under the law." This blatant example of racism, exceptionalism, and a blind eye by news media to expose this for what it is: domestic terrorism played out by a bunch of whining ranchers and malcontents who disregard civil society because they know they can get away with it. And they are and have repeatedly.They dare to call themselves "the point of the spear" in a movement to right the Constitution that they believe has been wronged -- when their real intent is to literally trigger their fantasy revolution of taking over America's public lands and put them back in the hands of the states. This is a sickening story that demeans all of us. The Bundy Brigade make a mockery of the United States and reveals the hypocrisy of this nation. They should be apprehended by the law and prosecuted accordingly.
Now.
We have our own local version of this anti-government BS in south Miami-Dade County. Check it out on Sunbiz.org: MIAMI DADE CITIZENS FOR PROPERTY RIGHTS, CORP. The corporate mission of dezz good 'Mericans is "Education citizens of Miami Dade County on their property rights and how to stop the government on infringing on such rights." Whatever the hell that means.
The irony of all this is the group is a tea party front for Palmetto Bay's Vice Mayor. I can hardly wait for this fine property rights advocate to take the next step. Lay siege and occupy the town hall.
There are loonies everywhere. Oregon has its Militia and Palmetto Bay has its property rights nuts.
I say we put up a huuuuge fence around the refuge and let the people who are there have it. No gate - nobody's going in or out.
Make sure we cut off the electricity and water to the building first.
No food deliveries, no supplies from 'the outside.'
Whoever's inside can stay inside. Forever.
Where is Janet Reno when you need her?
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