You continually refer to your rancher friends and family who will not be pleased by this, or will be thinking that Cliven Bundy's an idiot, etc., etc.
The "Lefty Racism dog whistle" makes people react in the exact manner you describe. The logical, critical portions of their brains shut off in response to the mere leveling of the charge of "racism", backed up by a thin gruel of "proof".
The dog-whistled stampede away from the newly anointed "Racism Leper", not bothering to question the motives of the accuser, nor indeed questioning too closely the "triggering event", for if they did, they too would become "Racism Lepers".
I have no use for such people, because they can be manipulated at will not just on this issue, but likely on others as well.
I've likened it to a computer malware infection.
This incident is a smear job by a professional media word-sniper. Just read the original NYT article, and you'll see.
You say that you "wouldn’t be surprised if they [your rancher friends] thought of him [Cliven Bundy] as an idiot right about now".
You have to remember that six years after a battalion of professional media word-snipers did their deadly work on Sarah Palin, a significant portion of the country still thinks of her as "an idiot".
Of course, you'll win no fans among your friends and family pointing out how their minds have been tampered with, so I don't envy if you try...
“...continually refer...”
Continually? Hardly
You failed miserably in trying to prove by any substantiation that I apparently responded to “Lefty Racism”. Rather, you spent most of your post on expounding diatribes, and attempted to use mixed metaphors no less.
Pointing out that comments concerning slavery are imprudent in light of a situation which has absolutely nothing to do with the current confrontation, and that such comments could be detrimental isn’t responding to “Lefty Racism” at all.