Not Sorry: Bundy Spends Another 20 Minutes Rambling About 'The Negro'

NIKI2

Friday, April 25, 2014 9:07 PM

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Republicans distance selves from Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy over racial remarks

Prominent Republicans and conservative news media outlets rallied in recent weeks around the cause of Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy, whose armed standoff with authorities over grazing rights on federal land had made him an instant folk hero on the right.

But Bundy’s GOP defenders, including Sens. Dean Heller (Nev.) and Rand Paul (Ky.), rapidly abandoned him on Thursday following reports of incendiary remarks that the white rancher made about minorities. Bundy wondered aloud whether blacks would be better off as slaves picking cotton, and alleged that people of color are “against us.”

The controversy marks another major headache for establishment Republicans working to build better relationships with blacks and Hispanics — crucial voting blocs that have increasingly supported Democrats in recent elections. The GOP is in the midst of a messaging tour aimed at reintroducing the party to minority voters, including lawmaker visits to minority neighborhoods and to historically black colleges.

“It undermines the broader, more important goals to rebrand and reestablish a conversation with a community that looks suspiciously upon most of the things you say,” said former Republican National Committee chairman Michael Steele, referring to African Americans in particular.

Steele, who was the RNC’s first black chairman, added that Republicans must declare that “there is no place for this level of ignorance and stupidity around matters of race in our party.”

Bundy said he “hardly ever” saw a black person until he was almost a teenager and noted that he is surrounded by white faces.

“Where is our colored brother? Where is our Mexican brother? Where is our Chinese — where are they?” Bundy said. “They’re just as much American as we are, and they’re not with us. If they’re not with us, they’re going to be against us.”

Before those comments were publicized, a number of prominent Republicans had offered support for Bundy’s cause. Heller, Nevada’s junior senator, said Bundy and his makeshift militia were “patriots” during a local news interview.

And Paul said he was sympathetic with Bundy’s opposition to federal ownership of grazing land, while distancing himself from the militant side of Bundy’s resistance. “I’m for obeying the law, and I’m not for a violent outcome,” Paul said Monday.

Much of that support evaporated Thursday. RNC Chairman Reince Priebus called Bundy’s racial comments “completely beyond the pale” and “100 percent wrong.” Paul said the remarks were “offensive,” while a spokesman for Heller declared them “appalling and racist.”

The rancher is the latest in a series of figures — including rock singer Ted Nugent and “Duck Dynasty” reality show star Phil Robertson — who made controversial racial remarks after being championed by conservatives. Republican operatives acknowledge that those associations have damaged the party’s attempts to rebrand itself.

Crystal Wright, a conservative commentator, said, “Republicans are part of our own problem,” given the regular embrace of figures such as Bundy.

“My parents didn’t sit-in at lunch counters so that they would be told that they would have been better off learning how to pick cotton,” Wright said. “We as conservatives don’t do a great job of cleaning up these racial missteps.”

Some Democrats and political scientists argue that conservative ideology focused on “state’s rights” — an issue linked with preservation of slavery and Jim Crow laws — makes it exceedingly difficult for Republicans to attract minority voters. Bundy’s comments, they said, show a common connection between anti-government ideology and racial animosity.

“He is a window into the soul of modern conservatism,” said Ian Haney López, a law professor at the University of California at Berkeley, who wrote a book called “Dog Whistle Politics.” He added, “A demonization of minorities and a demonization of the government i

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