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Bundy Jumps and Assault Rifles [1]

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Date: 2023-04-13  

Externalization of costs is a wonderfully democratic strategy for wealth acquisition. Whether addiction, labor violations, environmental degradation, or financial self-dealing, you will find beneficiaries of every race, ethnicity, and social status.

Privileged societies take on the challenge of mitigating against externalization of costs. England did in the late 1800s; America had that opportunity in the second half of the twentieth century. Laws multiplied, until I concluded that I would be limited to self-employment as a business option. That was a rational decision consistent with my ambitions. Others, with business degrees, seemed more comfortable with the responsibilities of corporate management.

But, you know, if your family has been ranching for 100 years, why should you submit to regulation and hiring a Harvard MBA? I haven’t heard this aspect of the American political conflict recognized in the news media. If the rules are too complicated, do you just sigh and accept that you’ll never have the opportunities known to your father, or do you go ahead and hope that the rules don’t apply to you?

This came to a head in Nevada, where the Bundy family had long flouted BLM land grants that required use fee payments. Eventually, the BLM got a writ to seize cattle in lieu of payment. The Bundy clan responded by calling in armed sympathizers, many crossing state lines to demonstrate support. The BLM, on the date of seizure, walked away empty handed. The Bundys were never brought to justice, even after sending a posse into Oregon to seize a nature center where one militia member was killed in a stand-off with law enforcement.

How does this tie into GoP extremism on gun rights? I don’t believe that it has only to do with the power of the NRA. I look at the GoP and see a pattern of impunity. The GoP seems to attract white-collar criminals who see political office as a “stay-out-of-jail-free” card. This is certainly what drew Donald Trump. Given DeSantis’ budgeting improprieties related to the transport of asylum seekers this summer, he might have the same motivations. We see similar allegations now coming out of Tennessee concerning the Assembly Speaker.

Consider just how deeply screwed we are as a nation if the assertion that “deaths of schoolchildren are an acceptable cost for preservation of the 2nd Amendment” is merely a smoke screen for racketeering? That GoP absolutism regarding the 2nd Amendment is actually seeking the ability to summon a militia for protection from prosecution under laws intended to prevent externalization of costs?

Just how widespread this may be should not be underestimated. Due to GoP asphyxiation of the IRS audit branch, we have national tax preparation firms that market their ability to prevent collection simply by filing motions that the IRS couldn’t afford to contest. There may be tens or hundreds of thousands of business owners and investors facing financial ruin with refunding of the IRS under the Inflation Reduction Act.

While it breaks my heart to hear Black commentators claiming that the GoP is motivated by pure racial hatred and a desire to restore control over women, I think that racial and sexual animus may be consequence, rather than cause. The victims are those that fight against the externalization of cost. Lindsay Graham has been known to say, “I don’t care what race you are. I only care whether you are a Republican.” Clarence Thomas seems to have been accepted, once it became clear that he was willing to help his benefactors externalize cost.

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[1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/4/13/2163857/-Bundy-Jumps-and-Assault-Rifles

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