Defiant cattleman not so sure about freedom for all

“And because they were basically on government subsidy, so now what do they do?” he asked. “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.”
These are the words of Cliven Bundy, the Nevada rancher whose defiance of the Bureau of Land Management has made him the darling of FOX News and assorted government haters.

Bundy: cattleman and social critic

The cowboys and cowgirls who have joined him, replete with rifles, handguns and
vows to defend their version of freedom, so far have forced the BLM to back away. The agency had planned to round up Bundy's cattle. Bundy has been grazing his herd on federal land, ignoring grazing fees other ranchers pay, since 1993. Other administrative and judicial remedies will be considered, according to BLM officials.
He made the comments about government subsidy when at one of the news conferences he calls daily, only one reporter and one photographer sauntered up. That didn't stop this Marlboro man from holding forth on the villainous BLM and all manner of social ills troubling him. That's when he decided to tell the world African Americans would be better off picking cotton as slaves.
That there is room to question the propriety of the federal government controlling vast stretches of the Western United States seems legitimate (85 percent of the land in Nevada is owned by the federal government). There might be legitimate beefs about fees the government charges cattlemen, although it would be just as reasonable to complain about how little the government charges companies that extract the nation's mineral and energy wealth from public lands.
“I’ll be damned if I’m going to honor a federal court that has no jurisdiction or authority or arresting power over we the people,” he said. He also likes to ride around on a horse waving an American flag.
Bundy owes the government -- the taxpayers -- more than $1 million in grazing fees. His family has grazed cattle in Nevada since they homesteaded in the 1870s, but he stopped paying his fees after the BLM ordered him to restrict the periods when his herd roamed the 600,000 Gold Butte area as part of an effort to protect the endangered desert tortoise.
But for now, the rules are the rules. And Bundy is obliged to follow them or suffer the consequences ... in this case the loss of his private property -- his cattle -- in exchange for his years-long use of public property.
And certainly Bundy's racist comments should give pause to his followers, the talking heads at FOX News and various politicians who've decided to circle up near the chuck wagon with this guy.