April 5, 2014 was the date when the modern United States government went off the rails. What happened on that date? Cliven Bundy said “come and take it.”
When Bundy declared his unwillingness to acknowledge the federal government, we should have went in there and taken everything from him and his family, killing every single adult that took up arms against the United States government and refused to recant their rebellion. If we had done that, we’d be in a different place right now.
I don’t know if it would have been a better or worse place, but with Bundy’s sovereign movement crushed into dust, his ranch auctioned to the highest bidder, his family dead or penniless and homeless, there would have been no Trump presidency. There would not be a world-wide retrenchment of White Nationalism.
Instead of doing that, the government paused before using force. Right or wrong, the 76 dead Branch Davidians caused the government to pause before doing what it should have done, and because of that we find ourselves where we are now.
The government is not required to be pacifist in order to be effective, it is only required to be just in its use of force. Justice now requires that White Nationalism be as determinedly destroyed as Black Nationalism and black rights, minority rights, have been destroyed since the creation of the United States. White Nationalism should have died with the Confederacy in 1865. It is long past time we killed the zombie that the Confederacy left behind.
Postscript
In a Facebook post from 2014 during the Bundy insurrection, I observed that a military showdown was what these types wanted in the first place. It was what the groups were planning for in all the historical instances they cite as previous examples of *government over-reach*. They all wanted and planned for a showdown with the government. Weirdly they never seem to understand that they are engaged in self-fulfilling prophecy.
They were blocking roads and impeding traffic which is a flagrant thumb in the eye of the direct interests of the United States government. I wonder what it would be like now if they had gotten what they were asking for then? I really do wonder.
Sen. Harry Reid said Tuesday that he has received “ugly, vile, vulgar” letters mailed to his home, nearly all of them mixing threats with passages from the Bible.
Reid did not say who sent the letters, which have triggered an investigation by the U.S. Capitol Police and reports that the security detail has been increased for the Nevada Democrat who serves as Senate majority leader.
Speaking with reporters, Reid paused and didn’t answer directly when asked whether the threats were tied to Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy, who has been in conflict with the Bureau of Land Management. Reid has called Bundy a “domestic terrorist” after he marshaled armed supporters this month to derail a government roundup of his cattle deemed to be trespassing on public land in rural Clark County.
“I don’t know who’s mad at me, but it’s a long list, I guess,” Reid said.
“Each day that goes by it’s hard for me to comprehend how ugly, vile, vulgar and threatening people are, sending letters to my home and making other threats,” Reid said.
“What also bothers me is virtually every one of these horrible things they send, they cite Scripture, something out of the Bible. Now you try that one on,” he said.
Reid was asked about Bundy, whose confrontation with the BLM occurred while Congress was in recess. He repeated his view that Bundy is openly violating the law and court orders and his cattle must be taken off the land.
Reid said he has spoken with Attorney General Eric Holder, FBI Director James Comey, Interior Secretary Sally Jewell “and others” about Bundy.
“They are going to move forward,” he said without providing detail. “We cannot have someone who openly violates the law.”
Now that the Senate has returned to session, some are calling for an examination into how the federal land agency conducted the attempted roundup that quickly turned into a tense standoff.
“I think there ought to be oversight into how they handled the situation,” Sen. Dean Heller, R-Nev., said. “If you show up with dogs and tasers and sniper rifles and flak jackets, there was probably a better way to handle that.”
Heller said he was worried about possible repeat confrontations if the government next year declares the sage-grouse a threatened species, an action that could close off wide swaths of Nevada rangeland.
“I am very concerned we are going to have more episodes like that in the future with the listing of the sage hen, sage-grouse, saying they are not compatible with cattle and driving these cattlemen out of work,” he said.
Heller said Congress should remain on the sidelines, though, until the Bundy case is resolved. “I want to see how this plays out in the end,” Heller said. “This thing is far from over.”
One thing seems certain: Bundy will have no role to play in any action contemplated on Capitol Hill. The rancher has become radioactive after his comments on race reported this month.
Speaking with supporters on April 19, Bundy said he wondered whether “the Negro” would be “better off as slaves, picking cotton,” than collecting government payments.
“I would not want him in the hallways of the U.S. Capitol,” Heller said. “There is no place for him in the halls of the United States Congress.”
Reid on Tuesday defended the BLM, which is headed by Neil Kornze, a Nevadan from Elko who served as public land adviser on Reid’s staff before joining the agency in 2011 and becoming confirmed as director on April 8.
“I think the Bureau of Land Management did an outstanding job trying to enforce two valid federal court decrees to tell this man basically to get the cattle off the land,” Reid said. “He’s decimated large tracts of land he has no business being on, he has damaged riparian areas, he hasn’t paid taxes, hasn’t paid fees. What was the BLM supposed to do?”
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