Bundy is a victim of government

By Thomas “Tommy D” DiGiacomo, Las Vegas

Thursday, April 24, 2014 | 2:01 a.m.

The editorial “Bundy is no victor” stated, “He could have staged an act of civil disobedience to garner help.”

Civil disobedience: refusal to obey laws as a way of forcing the government to do or change.

Civil disobedience is exactly what Cliven Bundy did by definition. And he got plenty of help.

Omitted from the Sun editorial: How cattle ranchers like Bundy have been victimized by federal government plans to protect the desert tortoise, and how the current showdown was provoked by an environmentalist lawsuit. The Bureau of Land Management has enforced these rules in ways that favor projects endorsed by federal bureaucrats, such as solar projects, while being tough on the cattle ranchers.

So let’s have some sympathy for the Bundy family. They don’t have a chance on the law, because under the Endangered Species Act and many other federal statutes, the agencies are always in the right. And the Bundys’ way of life is one that, frankly, is on the outs. They don’t develop apps. They don’t ask for food stamps. It probably has never occurred to them to bribe a politician. They don’t subsist by virtue of government subsidies or regulations that hamstring competitors. They aren’t illegal immigrants. They have never even gone to law school. So what possible place is there for the Bundys in the Age of Obama?