I have been studiously ignoring the Bundy foolishness, mentioning it only once in passing to note that it should be ignored. But I want to briefly respond to Josh Marshall because although I basically agree with what he’s saying, I think he’s missing something important.
The subject is the revelation that the Feds and the Oregon state police are allowing people to come and go from the bird sanctuary, which prevents them from running out of supplies. It’s true that this could theoretically make the siege last longer except for one crucial detail. It also means that there is no siege.
What the state and federal governments are saying is that these guys can go to the minimart for Hot Pockets anytime they want, which means that they can also just go home anytime they want. Basically, no one is acting like they give a shit about what these protestors are doing.
And this is probably the single most effective way of dealing with these kind of people that has even been conceived. They’ve already gotten a lot more attention than they deserved, which will only encourage the next act of “armed insurrection.” The last thing we need is to turn these folks into heroes or martyrs for some anti-federal cause. Let them get bored and wander on home to gather their scattered cattle.
I understand the sentiment behind the outrage here. The double standard in how these white men are treated and how, say, Tamir Rice was treated couldn’t be more glaring. However, delivering Ruby Ridge Part Deux just to be consistent is maybe the dumbest idea ever written down by a liberal.
The easiest way to end a siege is simply to refuse to besiege them.
Maybe they can be identified and arrested later, at our leisure.
