Mr. Bundy,
You have given the country a rare opportunity, sir. Until very recently, the issue that drew both the ire of statists and the camaraderie of American patriots was your land dispute with the federal government. They were central questions that were asked at the dawn of our Republic, and needed a much deserved reminder: “How much power does the government have?” And: “What exactly constitutes a property-holder?” For 20 years, you have bravely answered this, defying the Bureau of Land Management and telling them that the land belongs to the People, specifically those who toil and live on it. As a note as to my own stance on the matter, I believe it to be indefectibly American anytime one single person can upset everybody on the political spectrum – from the predictably hysterical liberal Talking Heads on MSNBC and CNN, to Fox’s lineup of Neoconservatives, including Bill Kristol, Tucker Carlson, and Glenn Beck. You know as well as I that those on the “Establishment Right” care as much about your plight as the average Democrip (Jesse Ventura’s new terminology for our “elected” officials) operative. It’s a damn fine thing to witness them all shriek in unity. Well done!
[...]
As you might have heard by now,
the event has gone mainstream. Scheduled to kick off on September 5th, and run into October, Shealy promises that it’s going to be anarchic – “TOTAL FREEDOM,” as the headline of the page reads– with live music playing all day and night, lots of nudity, beer, weed, and perhaps even a few guns. As Mr. Hadaller told me, if it “takes something like ‘BundyFest!” to trick people into talking with each other and maybe within all that crap, threats, name-calling, etc., maybe there will be two people from different political views who find out that they have a few things in common.” He also makes an interesting point in saying that the land that you own is not the land in which you graze your cattle on. And yet, he would love to see the day that all property tax is abolished. Just like that, two people with vastly different perspectives can seemingly agree to disagree for yet another time and place. “The idea is to be inclusive, not exclusive,” as he says. Good. Yet I have my doubts that any of the tough guys on their thread will actually be there in person, and then would not be concerned for the safety of your family. After all, voting once or twice a year in your own neighborhood is much easier than actually having to travel somewhere in order to make a dispute directly; why steal from someone when you can vote for a politician who will do it for you?
This is where you and your supporters come in. You have given press conference after press conference, interview after interview, attempting to clarify your thoughts and to speak to the American people. You even went so far as to call this a “movement.” What terminology! Surely you have perked more ears than just mine with that remark. Shall we be more direct than this? Can you come to embrace a new Woodstock right in your backyard? Shealy has said that he will respect your property boundaries. Can we all, then, just get along? Maybe figure out this little bit about taxation and property rights and who constitutes an actual welfare moocher? Perhaps eat some steak, drink some beer, and fight the Feds together? It would be wonderful.
I hope you consider, and I hope to meet you come September.