The Other McCain

"One should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth, or else shut up." — Arthur Koestler

Let’s Condemn All the Sexist, Racist, Homophobic Heroes of American History

Posted on | April 24, 2014 | 78 Comments

One of the joys of being an independent blogger is that you don’t have to pay attention to anything that doesn’t interest you, or about which you have nothing helpful to say. At least 90% of what Fox News and talk radio spend their time blabbering about falls into that category for me. It’s not that those stories aren’t important. Rather the question is, what’s the point in me becoming the 143rd blogger to add my two cents on a particular story, unless I have something to say that hasn’t already been said better by someone else?

This “value-added” approach to blogging explains why I haven’t had anything to say about the Cliven Bundy BLM confrontation. There were a couple of times in recent days when I almost blogged about it, but then something else would catch my eye  — who can resist a LESBIAN POLYGAMY headline? — and I’d forget about it. But so what? Everybody was blogging about the Bundy story, and the value of my two cents would have been negligible anyway.

That stance changed this morning when I noticed Dana Loesch discussing how a Politico reporter asked her to comment on some controversial racial remarks made by Cliven Bundy:

I’ve only ever focused on the BLM. In fact, I repeatedly said on my radio program that this isn’t about Cliven Bundy, it’s always been about the abuse of the BLM. The left is unhappy with this because they want to use Bundy’s remark to invalidate the entirety of the claims against the BLM. Forget Tommy Henderson, Kenni Patton, or other ranchers who have weighty claims against the BLM, it’s all moot now because of Cliven Bundy. Bundy’s a racist, therefore anyone who agreed with his criticism of the BLM’s heavy-handed tactics is also a racist. Bundy’s a racist, thus the politicians who spoke against the BLM sending 200 armed agents to deal with a local issue must also be racists. Now it’s the left who wants to make this about Bundy and his remark so they can silence all criticism of the BLM. In their minds, you can’t condemn Bundy’s remark and criticize the BLM. . . .
Bundy’s horrible remark doesn’t change that the BLM is overreaching.

Exactly so, Dana. This calls to mind, by the way, Andrew Breitbart’s insistence on “vetting” people before associating himself with them. Andrew understood that, in order to be in the white-hot heat of the national spotlight, he had to be “clean” of any unsavory associations, and he was careful to make sure he checked people out, sometimes in ways that offended them. But I digress . . .

The top of Memeorandum is now covered with reactions to Bundy’s “Negro” remarks, including condemnation by the eminent Nevada civil rights leader Harry Reid (eye-roll) and predictable celebratory jeering from the usual suspects, e.g., Slate.

Yet Dana’s point still holds: Bundy’s unfortunate remarks do not in the least justify the abusive conduct of the BLM. Do we have to conduct tests of people’s opinions on every controversial issue before we recognize their fundamental rights? And who will be the arbiter of which opinions are and are not acceptable? Will NARAL be the judge of what is acceptable to think about abortion? Will we authorize GLAAD to investigate people’s views on homosexuality? And will such judgments then be made the basis of whether a citizen is entitled to keep his life, liberty and property? Good God! Would liberals have tolerated this attitude toward suspected Communist subversives?

It should suffice to say that Bundy’s comments reflect opinions that are probably not uncommon among elderly white Nevada ranchers, who don’t waste much time wondering if their opinions (on race or anything else) are acceptably progressive. But the terroristic fury of an online lynch mob has had its intended effect: Republican politicians are predictably scuttling for cover, and very few of Bundy’s erstwhile supporters have been able to withstand the onslaught with anything like courage or dignity.

Among the dignified few is Kevin Williamson of National Review:

National Review correspondent Kevin Williamson, who recently compared Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy to Mahatma Gandhi, told TPM in an email on Thursday that he thought Bundy’s racially charged comments were “lamentable” but they were “separate” from Bundy’s standoff with the Bureau of Land Management. “Mr. Bundy’s racial rhetoric is lamentable and backward,” Williamson said in an email. “It is also separate from the fundamental question here, which is the federal government’s acting as an absentee landlord for nine-tenths of the state of Nevada.” “I very strongly suspect that most of the men who died at the Alamo held a great many views that I would find repugnant; we remember them for other reasons.”

Hear! Hear! And it’s not just the Alamo.

Has anyone ever bothered to investigate, for example, the racial opinions of those American heroes of the 101st Airborne Division who, surrounded by Hitler’s army at Bastogne, held firm to that crucial crossroads at peril of their lives? An awful lot of brave young G.I.’s probably died in the snow there — just like American boys died on the beach at Normandy, at Okinawa, at Iwo Jima — whose private opinions would today categorize them among the racists, sexists and homophobes that everyone with a WiFi connection now hastens to condemn.

Indeed, the careful student of history may be startled to learn the degree to which the Union troops whose victory in the Civil War secured the freedom of millions of slaves, were themselves quite frankly racist. For that matter, many of Abraham Lincoln’s statements about race were nearly as “lamentable and backward” as what Cliven Bundy said.

So I never said a word about Cliven Bundy until the Left decided to turn the old rancher into a symbol of “right-wing racism,” and now I’ve only got three more words to say: “Fuck you. War.”

 

Category: Racism

Comments

78 Responses to “Let’s Condemn All the Sexist, Racist, Homophobic Heroes of American History”

  1. Quartermaster
    April 25th, 2014 @ 6:50 am

    f anyone else needs it just ask. You don’t have to search back through the comments as I copied the instructions from Vox Day’s site and saved them. I tried Pale Moon, but was getting strange effects over at Hot Air and couldn’t post anything using Pale Moon for some reason.

  2. Treacher: Is It OK To Not Give A Hoot About Cliven Bundy? | Right Wing News
    April 25th, 2014 @ 7:22 am

    […] Anyhow, this will surely be my one and only post on the subject. Because this is not something I care enough to write about. RS McCain wrote […]

  3. Treacher: Is It OK To Not Give A Hoot About Cliven Bundy? » Pirate's Cove
    April 25th, 2014 @ 7:23 am

    […] Anyhow, this will surely be my one and only post on the subject. Because this is not something I care enough to write about. RS McCain wrote […]

  4. Da Tech Guy On DaRadio Blog » Blog Archive » Some Bundy Jiu Jitsu for the Right
    April 25th, 2014 @ 7:32 am

    […] have been some clever remarks on the subject, but Bundy said what he said. Sim­ply admit what old man said was racist straight […]

  5. Paul H. Lemmen
    April 25th, 2014 @ 8:28 am

    “and now I’ve only got three more words to say: “Fuck you. War.””
    Exactly so.
    Bravo Stacy. I believe in my heart of hearts that is exactly what the late (and sorely missed) Andrew Breitbart would have said.

  6. Cliven Bundy Racism Isn't The Point - Rotten To The Core
    April 25th, 2014 @ 8:59 am

    […] McCain mentions Dana Loesch and Kevin Williamson. First Dana (emphasis […]

  7. JeffS
    April 25th, 2014 @ 9:38 am

    Exactly, Adjoran. As one writer pointed out, there’s a case for a little sedition.

  8. JeffS
    April 25th, 2014 @ 9:45 am

    I concur.

    “Fuck you. War.”

  9. TC_LeatherPenguin
    April 25th, 2014 @ 11:02 am

    Have you seen the full clip? http://bit.ly/1mLEufu

  10. ...
    April 25th, 2014 @ 11:25 am

    Most people will now think that Mr. Bundy is, and necessarily must be, a biological determinist (racist). If not for the “dignified” Media Matters, for which one might espy their history. But without denying that there is much misinformation now, it seems to be that much of this controversy will (and shall) never be corrected in the case of progressives (especially the New York Times and sycophants) quite determined to promulgate the ‘narrative of narratives’.

  11. gingeroni
    April 25th, 2014 @ 11:49 am

    I don’t see a problem using FireFox but I get the old page problem on SeaMonkey. I did set SeaMonkey to not say it was FireFox compatible. The site also arbitrarily switched me to the mobile view and would not let me switch back just this morning.

  12. Zilla of the Resistance
    April 25th, 2014 @ 2:13 pm

    It happened to me with Chrome; TOM was stuck on April 22, 2014 unless I had a link directly to a newer story, until I cleared my browser’s cache & refreshed again.

  13. Zilla of the Resistance
    April 25th, 2014 @ 2:16 pm

    Yep. I have that too, now that you mention it! My phone now displays a miniature version of the regular TOM site when until a few days ago there had been a spiffy mobile version that was easier to read.
    Maybe it’s something with WordPress, because I noticed my Zilla blog is also no longer showing a mobile version on my phone, but I blog so rarely with my poor health that I do not know if the blog is frozen on a date like TOM is.

  14. Conservative
    April 25th, 2014 @ 2:35 pm

    Over at TruthRevolt, they have the unedited Bundy remarks. I know all here will be shocked to hear this, but the NY Times heavily edited to put Bundy in the worst light.
    He prefaced his remarks with praising the country had made with the civil rights movement and that “we shouldn’t go back”. He then talked about life on the government dole. Unfortunately, he used the phrase “Negro”. You know, like Harry Reid – which the media ignored.
    People need to call out the NYT.

  15. Quartermaster
    April 25th, 2014 @ 4:47 pm

    I just click refresh and all is well.

  16. Quartermaster
    April 25th, 2014 @ 4:53 pm

    NYT lied? Oh, say it ain’t so!

  17. Mike G.
    April 25th, 2014 @ 5:08 pm

    I have the same problem. But refresh brings up newest posts.

  18. richard mcenroe
    April 25th, 2014 @ 9:20 pm

    Given the chance.

  19. richard mcenroe
    April 25th, 2014 @ 9:22 pm

    There is NO prpblem with the BLM. It is doing exactly what it was designed to do: closing off the American land from the American people for disposition at will by the Federal Government.

  20. richard mcenroe
    April 25th, 2014 @ 9:24 pm

    Welcome to the new century.

    http://youtu.be/8Q6VtG9eGFQ

  21. richard mcenroe
    April 25th, 2014 @ 10:00 pm

    I’m asking. First I’ve heard of it.

  22. richard mcenroe
    April 25th, 2014 @ 10:01 pm

    More people need to have arguments with Jeff Goldstein. Might toughen ’em up.

  23. richard mcenroe
    April 25th, 2014 @ 10:02 pm

    There’s nothing that Bundy said that hasn’t been said here, or on Ace, or for that matter by LAUSD union officials in Los Angeles.

  24. Bob Belvedere
    April 26th, 2014 @ 12:11 am

    One way to avoid having the clean-out the cache is to hit the ‘About RSM’ link at the top of TOM and the ‘Recent Posts’ listing will show all posts.

  25. Bob Belvedere
    April 26th, 2014 @ 12:13 am

    Same here, but in these situations now, I channel Andrew Breitbart and Just Say ‘So?’.

  26. Bob Belvedere
    April 26th, 2014 @ 12:22 am

    My Father is 88 years old, fought in WWII, and occasionally will use the word ‘colored’. This is a word that has only reappeared as part of his vocabulary in the last decade or so as he’s gotten older.

    When I was very young in the late 1960’s, ‘Negro’ was the popular term. It was quickly replaced, per request, by ‘Black’. And that is the term I still use, refusing to accept ‘African-American’ [or any ‘(insert group)-American’ because any one born here is simply an ‘American’ – they maybe of some descent, but their is no dual-identity] as foolish and ‘people of color’ as Goddamn stupid [I’m white, which last time I checked, was a color].

  27. K-Bob
    April 26th, 2014 @ 3:35 am

    You are correct, sir.

    Just Googlin’ [Ted Cruz Bundy] shows that the left has their hand up Bundy’s metaphoric posterior to use him as their own, special brush in an heroic attempt to tar Cruz, Palin, and a cast of thousands. They will tar them all for the thoughtcrime of “supporting a pro-slavery racist.”

    Tar is of course, racist.

    But this is the fog made manifest in our political war.

    Not the trope meaning that war is a fog. No, these noxious eructations of the left pervade the space in which we must do battle.

    In other words, avoidance is futile.

    Thus the Great, White Hope of Messrs. Rove and Adelman is doomed to failure. They see no fog. They think it’s a land mine**. They think a “smart” candidate can dance around that mine and waa-laa his mushy posterior into the Oval Office.

    Not – gonna – happen.

    The left has rediscovered their inner KKK, and they are gonna beat their turgid race card like it owes them money.

    We need a captain who can tack upriver at night, in fog. Not some swab who’s only skill is hewing to port and pretending to be a lowly merchant ship bearing supplies handouts.

    Running from the race card is racing tardigrade for the rum.

    ** Vocalized the same as, "They have a cave troll."

  28. Quartermaster
    April 26th, 2014 @ 12:19 pm

    Here you is….

    Fumigating the Firefox

    Since Pale Moon is built upon a Firefox base, it still reports
    itself to be Firefox to web sites by default. Fortunately, it is
    trivially simple to turn this off and cause the browser to correctly report itself as PaleMoon.

    1. Create a new tab.
    2. Type “about:config” into
    the Address Bar as if it were an internet site (URL).
    3. Type “compatMode” into
    the Search box that will appear right below the Address Bar.
    4. On the line general.useragent.compatMode.firefox there are three
    settings: user set, boolean, true. Click on “true” and it
    will change to false.
    5. Close the tab.

    I had to double click ‘true” to make it false.