New Darling Of The Right, Cliven Bundy, Exposes Himself As A Racist

Here in the St. Louis area we have a name for ignorant, backwards, illiterate, hillbilly racists. We call them "hoosiers"; no, not necessarily Indiana natives, but people who have cars in their yards and might be missing a few teeth. The wheel is still spinning in their heads, but the hamster has died. They use bad grammar, they hate Obama, they want to end welfare (except for the government handouts they receive), and they gripe about "nigras." Now we know Bundy (no, not Ted Bundy, though he was infamously a Republican too), the deadbeat Nevada farmer on government subsidies and the newly adopted hero of FOX News commentators, is a good ol' fashioned hoosier. What he said yesterday earned him that sobriquet. Here's what he said:

"I want to tell you one more thing I know about the Negro...because they were basically on government subsidy, so now what do they do? 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."

I read this aloud to my wife, and she gasped. Then we were quiet a moment and reflected on the horror that there are millions just like him out there, wandering the villages of America, armed to the teeth, spouting hatred, and waiting for the overthrow of the American government. Their twisted logic, regressive politics, and open hatred would be funny if they were not so dangerous. And they admire Cliven Bundy for his views and his actions.

If you haven't heard, Bundy for years has grazed his cattle on government property. When the government took a stand, Bundy forced an armed standoff. His racist Montana neighbors rushed to the scene, guns drawn, and, to avoid a firefight, government agents backed down. Sean Hannity and Bill O'Reilly proclaimed Bundy a hero. I wonder how FOX News will sheepishly back away from Bundy's latest comments.

The incident speaks to a larger conflagration that plays out in the right-wing extremist's head: a new Civil War. They want to bring down the government, by force if necessary. We dismiss the innate hypocrisies of their fantasies at our own risk. While waving the flag they tell us that America's government is the enemy; while decrying the state's handout, they have no problem with the dole they get; while making over the Founders as gun-toting, lawless fanatics, they ignore the fact that Washington put down insurrectionists who failed to pay taxes. Forget all that. What should worry us is that they want to kill all those whom they perceive as internal enemies--liberals, blacks, females, Latinos, immigrants, Democrats...you know, the majority of us.

Georgia just enacted laws which would allow guns in churches, ballparks, airports, schools and taverns. Hoosiers can be harmless when they are unarmed. But this is America in the 21st century, and these Bundyites are violent sociopaths who are packing heat. They may not be as smart as us, as evolved as us, or as democratic as us, or read and write as well we do, but they'd like to make up for their inferiorities by killing us. And someday they just might organize a militia which will do just that.