The sad underlying truth here is that Clive Bundy is a member of a dying breed - the independent rancher (or, in a greener part of the nation, a farmer) who want little more from the government than to be left alone to live his life as his ancestors have done, on the land. The sadness comes from the fact that other than conservatives, traditionalists, and libertarians - no one cares about people like him or their choices. As witnessed by the fact that over 50 ranchers just like Bundy have been wiped out - and when have any of us heard a word about it? They can’t move the stock price, they amount to only a small handful of votes, they don’t have a powerful lobby or special interest group on K street pulling for them. To put it bluntly, they’re on life support, and regardless of whether the BLM pulls the plug or not, a way of life and tradition will be gone all too soon. And the nation will be the lesser for it.
I think you have hit the nail on the head there. It is also worth pointing out that the way of life we are losing the is the very one many of the founding fathers, particularly Thomas Jefferson envisioned for this country. To lose it we lose our heritage as Americans. And I thank God for anyone with the courage to stand against the federal leviathan now, instead of waiting for Jesus his saints to return and do the job some are too good to do.
I can see where the Bundy family may have helped to create the legal situation they’re in, but it just really makes me sad to think that a way of life is slipping away in the process. I’ll probably shed a tear when the last landline phone is unplugged and the last AM radio station is turned into a digital noisemaker too...
I guess even sadder is the fact that in a couple of generations the traditions that built the nation will no longer be evident, outside of museums and movies. Which is to say they will only be remembered in ways that can be dismissed as easily our forefathers dismissed the Indians (or should I say “Native Americans”). The ultimate irony may be that the Bundy clan is now in about the same position the Indians were in during the latter part of the 19th century, fighting the same enemy.