Your turn. Which is better?
1. Being a slave...to the massa.
2. Or being a slave...to the government and its stifling bureaucracy.
Note that both of Bundy's options are premised on being a slave...to somebody...or some institution.
I was not alive during the time of slavery and would not wish the condition on any man -- be it either of the above. And I'm certain Cliveden Bundy doesn't either.
But I was alive during the era of Jim Crow. And I often find myself asking the same question Bundy is asking. Life under Jim Crow was separate...and it was not equal. But it may well have been more equal than it is now.
Many southern cities had (or still have) a second downtown -- which had served as the center of black commerce. Banks, retail stores, hotels, supermarkets, restaurants, professional offices, stock brokerages, etc. I have seen them when they were in their prime -- bustling, even thriving, full of busy, outwardly happy people.
If there were such a thing as a Happiness Quotient, I would not be surprised if it was found that the average black's HQ was higher in 1955 than it will be in 2015.
The simple fact is that Democrat administrations from LBJ forward have done everything possible to a.) rend asunder the black family and make the race dependent upon their governmental policies, thereby b.) controlling the black vote and c.) exacerbating race relations, hoping to benefit from resentment and conflict.
Whatever chance at true freedom blacks may have gained from the Civil Rights Movement was snuffed out by LBJ's War on Poverty. And, as they voted for it, the Democrats were aware of exactly what kind of dependence it would engender. Ass't Sec'y of Labor's Daniel P. Moynihan wrote an analysis spelling out the consequences in detail.
On the other hand, has the black community benefitted from this situation and its political dependency? Are they happier now than in 1955? Or, even, in 1855?
Like Cliveden Bundy, I wonder, too...
My point is that Bundy said blacks were better off as slaves. He is wrong on 2 points:
1. Blacks today can leave the government plantation. Slaves could not.
2. His idealistic presentation of a slave 'family' is not reality. Slave owners could sell any 'family' member.