The Ballad of Cliven Bundy is turning into quite the American folk classic. Turns out Fox's favorite scofflaw is a raging racist. Brian Buetler has a post at The New Republic that meditates on the retrenchment of the Right after being (somehow) surprised by Cliven's dark side.
I wonder, is Beutler's conclusion true?
Steven Colbert perfected the role of a self-deluded conservative who's blinded himself to the existence of race and racism in American society. Liberals love the act because the conservatives Colbert parodies really do gloss over the roles race and racism play in American life. He's exaggerating, but he cuts very close. Conservatives, on the other hand, can't stand it—not so much because they think he's wrong about conservatism, though they do, but because they think he's wrong about the country, and is tarnishing conservatism with his own analytical error.