Does Cliven Bundy 'Matter'?

Many Americans are watching the Cliven Bundy story unfold with sadness and consternation.

Is it just human nature, or Pavlovian training, that makes people confuse personalities with principle? "How can you back a man like Bundy who expresses such backward thinking?" they ask, no doubt at least for some, with great sincerity.

The fact that what Mr. Bundy is commonly understood to have said differs greatly from what he, when heard in full context, actually said, is a rather separate point, worthy, perhaps, of a blog piece of its own. -One using this case to demonstrate the everyday distortions readers, watchers and listener's experience due our highly partisan, and thoroughly manipulative, media.

But today's blog is about something different. It is about the even more fundamental concept that one's supporting Mr. Bundy's in his fight against the Bureau of Land Managment should not be dependant upon whether we "like" Bundy as a person or share his general world view. No, no more than fighting for someone's freedom of speech should be about "liking" the speaker or agreeing with what he or she has to say. 

To love liberty is to support every person's right to free speech and free thinking because such right is, and must remain, universal -- inalienable -- i.e., a right that cannot be taken away, denied, or transferred -- if liberty is to exist at all.

It is, and must remain, fundamental in a society based on liberty and human rights that those who have power be held to higher standards than even the general populous. Thus we expect the police to use force in only the most measured way -- unlike an assailant who might use it freely and totaly for his own ends. Too, we rightfully expect greater restraint from a judge speaking from the bench than we do from a person standing before that bench.

It increasingly seems to many onlookers, including this writer, that these fundamental principles are being forgotten and ignored by our society. People are being allowed to transgress freely, or not at all, depending on their likability, popularity and whether or not we agree with them on issues that may be important to us personally, but that are not germane to the subject at hand.

These are the qualities of clannish societies. Of so-called "banana republics," not of free, liberty-loving, people.

Shouting "hurray for our side!" is both fun and acceptable on the football field. But it has no place in the administration of public policy or justice. Support for Cliven Bundy remaining free, both as regards his livelihood and his standing before the law, unthreatened by those with power, is thus fundamental to the liberty of all.

In the end, misrepresented ot not, what Mr. Bundy personally thinks and feels about this or that has no relevance at all.

This blog posting has been adapted from one originally written for, and posted by,  American Thinker