How Cliven Bundy Changed Our National Politics

By Charles Pierce, Esquire

17 December 15

Things are wild, unhinged, and violent.

t was a giant mistake for the federal government to let racist freeloader Cliven Bundy and his gun-toting comrades off lightly for an act of genuine sedition. This was obvious from the moment it happened, but it has become increasingly obvious as time has gone by. It has become plain that the Bundy "stand-off" has helped let loose fully upon the country and its politics a strain of wildness that was only barely contained since the power axis of movement conservatism moved south and west from the backyard of the Buckley manse in Connecticut. You can see this in everything from the barely disguised racist refusal to treat the president's election as legitimate, to the hysterical paranoid salesmanship of the NRA, to the stubborn popularity on the stump of He, Trump. And, on its home ground, it's become even worse.

The source told agents that Barbeau — who claims on his Facebook page to be an ex-U.S. Marine — spoke frequently about how "the federal government was not abiding by the principles set forth in the Constitution and that many public servants, such as judges and police officers who had sworn to uphold it, had deviated from their oath of office," according to court documents. Barbeau told the source it was his duty to educate errant public servants and "discussed 'lynching' those he deemed unworthy if necessary," according to a complaint filed under seal Dec. 2. Barbeau and others discussed that they would "physically remove" an unidentified California judge presiding over a misdemeanor-weapons charge Barbeau was facing in that state…Barbeau, on his Facebook page, claims he was a member of the security detail for the family of renegade right-wing rancher Cliven Bundy during a standoff with federal agents at Bundy's ranch in Nevada over grazing fees.

At least they caught this guy before he could kill people the way Bundy acolytes Jerad and Amanda Miller did in Las Vegas. He, Trump is demonstrating to the polite face of the Republican Party what the end result of decades spent playing footsie with an unhinged base can be. Too many conservative Republican politicians—and conservative celebrity media mavens—have worked the spicier end of the Hofstadter buffet with people like Schuyler Barbeau and the Millers. God help us all if somebody like them shows Sean Hannity, or former CNN contributor Dana Loesch, what the end result of that can be.