Why Cliven Bundy Wasn't A Religious Right Hero

[rug]

April 25, 2014
2:50PM
Post by Sarah Posner

Phillip Bump asks why Duck Dynasty's Phil Robertson became a hero of the religious right, and why the rancher Cliven Bundy is being dumped like a hot potato by conservatives (some rather belatedly) who lionized his supposedly brave stand against the big bad federal government, until his racist statements were published in the New York Times.

As Jamelle Bouie chronicles, Bundy's view that blacks were better off under slavery are "fairly common within the conservative movement," the only difference being he "isn't sophisticated enough to couch his nonsense in soundbites and euphemism."

Adam Serwer adds:

This all trickles down from somewhere. Slavery analogies are common among conservative figures like Glenn Beck and Sarah Palin, and it’s one of the reasons many conservatives have fallen in love with Ben Carson. In Washington, the critique of the welfare state is finessed into a more sophisticated argument that lacks references to slavery, and where race is usually discussed through euphemism or not at all. That's when we begin to hear things like Rep. Paul Ryan speaking of "generations of men" in "inner cities" who don't know "the value and the culture of work." Then again, sometimes you have multimillionaire former GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney railing against the "gifts" Barack Obama promised to "the African-American community, the Hispanic community and young people."

At best, these kinds of statements combine a genuine desire to sympathize with the black poor with many conservatives’ pre-existing ideological views about government. At worst, they reflect ancient myths about black people that predate the welfare state and reassure white conservative audiences of their own innocence when it comes to racial disparities–not to mention an startling blindness about the brutal realities of chattel slavery.

http://www.religiondispatches.org/dispatches/sarahposner/7821/why_cliven_bundy_wasn_t_a_religious_right_hero/

[cbayer]

1. Nice historical take on this.

He's just not sophisticated enough to say what they think in a way that's palatable.