I haven’t done a very good job of keeping up with this Cliven Bundy story, mostly because it broke while I was deliberately avoiding the news on vacation, but I must say that I’m simply shocked to find out that a right-winger who denies the authority of the federal government is also racist. After all, it’s not as though the rejection of federal authority has ever been used in defense of racism before. This is almost like trying to eat a bowl of peanut butter and finding out that someone has carelessly stuck a chocolate bar in there.
I don’t have any deep thoughts here, except to wonder what, exactly, is the difference between Bundy wondering whether or not black folks were better off as slaves, and John Roberts and Antonin Scalia lecturing Sonia Sotomayor about what racism really means. Seems really all of a piece as far as I can tell.
The Foreign Exchanges Companion 