The Bundy Siege is a Wake-Up Call: American Extremists Are Getting Desperate and Dangerous
People like the Bundy family are on the decline in America. But before they disappear, they're going to raise hell.
Something scary is happening in the so-called libertarian west. Armed terrorists have taken over a federal building in Oregon. By now, you know the story, even as it plays out in real time. It’s an escalation of an ongoing battle that started with the Cliven Bundy Ranch fiasco, wherein a gutless Federal government let a bunch of armed kooks run roughshod over basic law enforcement. Bundy refused to pay his grazing fees, and instead decided to make his private profit with stolen public resources, threatening violence if authorities attempted to correct his infractions. This latest dustup is superficially about a couple of ranchers given five-year prison sentences for setting fires that destroyed public land, but that is only a flimsy pretext; this is another round of antisocial behavior by a group of (mostly) men who are watching the decline—if not outright elimination—of their power and influence in the west.
Leading this latest insurrection are two of Cliven Bundy’s children, wealthy ranchers who are furious that they aren’t allowed to pillage public resource for their personal profit. The errant stepchildren of mining, grazing and big business interests, they’ve talked a cadre of armed, confused, and violent men into joining a lost cause. The entire enterprise reeks of the kind of impotent rage reserved for failed crusades. Although I don’t know the drivers of this clown car personally, I know a great many people that share the belief system.
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