Sunday, April 20, 2014

2 Paragraphs: Cliven Bundy Is Angry—Just Like the Rest of Us

"Rand Paul wants us to focus calmly on the issue of whether governmental authority has exceeded its legitimate scope. In an all-or-nothing world where the federal government dwarfs everything, that’s a tall order. Democrats dig in their heels, certain that ceding ground to “the crazies” will set a dangerous precedent of retreat. Republicans cling to real-life examples of “out-of-control government,” whatever the risk to their reputation, because they know that abstract ideals just aren’t enough to inspire Americans to restore limited government."


"Paul is right that we must deal with the Bundy crisis in the spirit of neighborly forbearance. To do so, however, we need to turn our gaze away from politics for a moment. For devout Christians—and not just the devout—Easter weekend is an especially propitious time to do exactly that. Before religion was conscripted into the nationalization of all political issues, more of us could see clearly that the realms of church and of faith ameliorated the burdensome work of forgiving enemies, reconciling with foes, and recognizing one another as beings plunged up to our necks in the same hard predicaments."

Daily Beast

18 comments:

Shouting Thomas said...

Yes, it would be a good thing to lower the heat of the rhetoric.

The left needs to let go of its "angry bigot" rhetoric. But, I doubt that it will, because that rhetoric fires up the internet chat rooms.

And religion, and Jesus' message of forgiveness, is unknown.

Shouting Thomas said...

Today is the day to forgive one's enemies, to wipe the slate clean and start anew.

edutcher said...

Demos have been ceding ground to the crazies since WWII.

PS Some sure-fire advice on how Bundy can win this.

sakredkow said...

"Even when our hope for sanity in politics seems to have gone as dry as the Nevada desert, it can rise again—if only we think of each other as more than Republicans, Democrats, or even Americans."

Oh yes. Oh yes.

edutcher said...

Civility?

Bipartisanship?

World peas?

Sorry, we've been down that road.

Unknown said...

It's important to have a tone that is completely opposite the radical insane leftwing authoritarian corrupt lunatic - Harry reid(D).

harry reid needs to quit his job and go work for Maduro. Two peas in a pod.

Unknown said...

The conversation should be about government over-reach. These government agencies work for us, remember? More often, like Rand reminds us, these bureaucracies make life miserable and do nothing but waste time an money forcing people to jump through unnecessary hoops. I know I've experienced it.

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

What April just said, about an hour ago.

Unknown said...

Our government doesn't work for us anymore. It's time to change that.

Beloved Commenter AReasonableMan said...

I'm not angry. My stock/retirement fund is up, a lot. My house is worth more than I paid for it, once more, and my son can stay on my health insurance for a few more years. Morning in America, baby. Morning in America. And we aren't fighting any stupid wars.

sakredkow said...

The best way to defeat your enemy is to make him your friend.

Synova said...

ARM, I guess the wars we're now fighting are all smart ones?

Or something?



Synova said...

I like what Rand said. And he's right about how stupid and expensive some things are... what was the alternative to fixing the sewage system if the mussels were endangered... NOT fixing it? Running sewage into the river?

Local control isn't always an automatic good result, but it does usually allow for a little bit of common sense.

Also, I begin to suspect that Reid is actually senile, the way he goes on. And it really is inexcusable to use a potentially violent situation for political posturing instead of doing your duty and *job* as a leader to calm things down.

Rand *could have* given a fiery speech about resisting tyranny and the blood of patriots... he didn't.

Proving who is the "grown up" in the room, compared to Reid.

Unknown said...

According to the media- Afghanistan isn't happening. Even though it is.

Aridog said...

April...the "media" will be the last to tell you, or anyone here, how many places the US has troops. And, hey, they're in harm's way in more than just Afghanistan.

Aridog said...

phx said...

The best way to defeat your enemy is to make him your friend.

Interesting. You could be paraphrasing the policy advocated by the USMC's General Victor Krulak in Vietnam. General Krulak believed small units of regular Marine infantry (not just Special Forces) could embed in villages and become one with the villagers. It was implemented by the USMC in the CAP Program. Similar tactics were also implemented in Iraq and Afghanistan. The History Channel documentary "Restrepo" covered a part played by the 173rd Ariborne Brigade.

Aridog said...

I should note that the USMC CAP program was implemented in contrast to the failed "stategic hamlet" program advocated and directed by Robert Komer from the West Wing.

Proving once again, you cannot fight a war from the White House...it seems, however, that Presidents never learn that.

Beloved Commenter AReasonableMan said...

Synova said...
ARM, I guess the wars we're now fighting are all smart ones?


I never had a problem with the Afghanistan war in the sense that we had no option other than to respond and to kill Bin Laden. The nation building might possibly have worked if Afghanistan was an island but there were no good options with Pakistan being the major regional power influencing internal Afghan politics. In retrospect, a very rapid but limited response targeting Bin Laden and Mullah Omar would have been the best option. I doubt we are going to get much return on our investment in the country.