On taking a stand — when it’s a good thing to the Left and when it’s a bad thing

To the Left, this is a BAD protest.
To the Left, this is a BAD protest.

Cliven Bundy and his cohorts took a stand against the federal government for its land grabbing behavior in Nevada.  (The federal government controls 81% of Nevada land.) Bundy was and is extremely hostile to the Bureau of Land Management, which he sees as antithetical to state and individual rights under the Constitution. A lot of Americans resonated to the tone he struck in his battle against the government. The Leftist hive, however, was appalled. Mother Jones compared him to Ted Bundy, the infamous serial killer. Harry Reid, who has apparently never come across an actual Islamic terrorist was quick to label Bundy a “domestic terrorist.” Slate castigated him as reckless, lawless, and racist.

Apropos the racism charge, Bundy looks at today’s African-Americans on the Democrat welfare plantation and says that, while they may not work much, the social ills of welfare — the crime, the abortion, the relentless poverty — mean that they’re not necessarily better off than they were when they were actual slaves on physical Democrat-owned plantations. Bundy’s phrasing is infelicitous, but I’ve said much the same; that is, not that slavery was better, but that the Democrats are still destroying black lives in America.

To the Left, this is a GOOD protest.
To the Left, this is a GOOD protest.

While the Left thought Bundy’s liberty-based protest was a very bad thing, there’s a different tone entirely when it comes to Native Americans in North Dakota protesting a private oil company coming in. That kind of protest is cool and awesome. The New York Times writes admiringly about tribe members donning old-fashioned indigenous people wear to protest a buried pipeline that will help wean America off of foreign oil, lower oil prices across America, and bring jobs to the region. Ordinary Lefties are all cheers when it comes to this protest, as I know from my real-me Facebook feed, where numerous Progressive friends posted the Times story with all sorts of approving language.

So here’s how it works:  If you’re on the Left, you can challenge the military, challenge the police, challenge your college professors and faculty if they’re not hard enough Left, and challenge private companies but, for God’s sake, whatever you do don’t challenge the largest economic and coercive power in the US — the federal government — when it seeks to increase its already expansive control over American’s lives and property. On the Left, taking a stand for liberty is always a bad thing.