Cliven Bundy and racial concern trolling: Why the rancher’s bigoted rant means more doom for the GOP

[DonViejo]

Conservatives know their days of winning via white resentment are numbered. Here's why their backup plan is doomed

ELIAS ISQUITH

When renegade rancher Cliven Bundy was revealed this week to be very much a racist, most Republicans tried to separate themselves from the man with the kind of speediness and immediacy we don’t often associate with the conservative movement. (Remember, these are the same people who still carp about Benghazi and think every presidential election will be a repeat of 1980.) It was easy to see why: With references to porches, picking cotton and slavery, Bundy’s speech was like a greatest hits compilation of racial taboos. And if any group knows which words you can and cannot say in polite conversation today when talking about black people, it’s the Obama-era GOP. It’s a lesson they’ve learned the hard way.

But for all the earnestness of their attacks on Bundy — Sean Hannity alone called his former favorite rancher’s ideas “beyond repugnant,” “beyond despicable” and “beyond ignorant” — what many conservatives failed to notice is that, at their essence, Bundy’s comments were well within the conservative mainstream. Not the stuff about black people sitting on porches or needing to learn how to pick cotton, but rather the critique of the welfare state as somehow being responsible for the destruction of the African-American family. As others have noted, this line of analysis was just recently endorsed by Paul Ryan, the de facto intellectual leader of the GOP. So Bundy’s only real sin was, as Slate’s Jamelle Bouie correctly wrote, not being “sophisticated enough to couch his nonsense in soundbites and euphemism.”

Perhaps even more uncomfortably for conservatives, it’s not only that Bundy’s vision of the social consequences of redistribution so closely mirrors theirs, it’s also that his way of framing his critique is the same as theirs, too. In his initial remarks as well as those he’s offered since in his own defense, Bundy has tried to engender sympathy by arguing that all he was trying to do is express his deep concern for the plight of black families in the U.S. today. It’s not that he doesn’t think they deserve “his” money, it’s that he worries government assistance will ultimately be detrimental to black people, that it will sap them of their ambition and force them to rely on others for survival. Bundy is worried that the safety net will, as Paul Ryan once put it, “turn … into a hammock that lulls able-bodied people to lives of dependency and complacency.”

I call this move — the adoption of a stance of disingenuous or exaggerated concern for people of color — “racial concern trolling.” And while it’s always been an element of conservatism’s rhetorical repertoire, with the advent of the country’s first black president and the related shift in national politics away from questions of foreign policy and toward arguments over redistribution, it’s become increasingly prevalent in the political discourse. Yet as dishonest a tactic as this usually is, I think it actually offers reason for supporters of the redistributive state to be optimistic about the future of racial politics in America.

more
http://www.salon.com/2014/04/26/cliven_bundy_and_racial_concern_trolling_why_the_ranchers_bigoted_rant_means_more_doom_for_the_gop/

[The Magistrate]

1. Indeed, Sir: Bundy Did Say A Thing Which Is Not A Staple Of Right Wing Commentary On Race

All he did was drop the turd un-polished....

[Cal33]

2. Remember some months ago when a white male was making negative comments about blacks? Some

people looked up his family tree, and found that this man was 13% black. And this was published
all over the news media.

I wonder if there are people now looking up Cliven Bundy's family tree. Just imagine what would
happen, if some black ancestor should be found there, too!

[Sunlei]

4. yes. And now science has just proven(last year) light skin is a mutation of darker skin.

"lighter skin is simply, a genetic mutation of darker skin.". Only 125,000 years ago we all walked out of Africa TOGETHER.

Cretin racists, can add DNA and genetic studies to their box of "science fears".

You are so on the mark about your DNA post 'Cal33', thank you!

[Sunlei]

3. Think of the bright side for GOP!, they can continue to DOG WHISTLE in headlines using his name.

dog whistle to the republican raciest moron votes, very important votes to republicans.

[corkhead]

5. I would like to think that after all of the divide and conquer the Repubs have perpetrated

over the past 50 years, we are finally catching on to them, just like in the last minute of this toon...


http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x65404_foghorn-leghorn-daffy-duck-the-high_shortfilms

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_High_and_the_Flighty

[freshwest]

6. Inshannity said 'beyond' three times? He was thinking 'Benghazi.' Waterboarding penance soon?

[SmittynMo]

7. Here's what I don't understand

The right backed up this asshole big time, for over a week. Do you know why? Bundy represented all of the hatred that the right is so proud of. Even when it was known that Bundy was guilty of breaking federal law and tax evasion, the far right idiots backed him up. Hannity had him on TV many times, letting him spew his hatred for the government. He was their perfect citizen, the far right poster child. Now that Bundy has come out as a racist, and despicable, they are throwing him under the bus. I don't get it. It's a well known fact that the far right are racist, and falls inline with the their beliefs. And now they want to make a statement, that his comments were undesirable. Are you kidding me? Unless they want to keep the few on the right that really aren't racists, why not support Bundy even more? He's your poster child. The right is so screwed up at this point. They don't even want to stand up for someone that supports all their far right beliefs, including racism. I just love it, they are slowly destructing.

[Cal33]

8. We are 6 months and a few days to Election Day. Maybe these Right-Wingers are beginning

to realize that supporting Bundy might mean losing votes in November. It's finally
hitting home?

[SmittynMo]

9. It's too late

They were heads over heels in love with this guy til he opened his racist mouth.