It is Time for All Political Candidates of All Political Parties to Denounce “Y’all Qaeda”

By
Greg Diamond
– January 3, 2016Posted in: "The OC", Fresh Juice

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Meet your new Fort Sumter! And someone's waiting for a honey drop!

Meet your new Fort Sumter! And someone’s waiting for a honey drop!

[Editor’s note: credit for the term “Y’all Qaeda” goes to a friend of a friend of this blog, someone who probably doesn’t even know that this blog exists.  Used without permission, so far, but too great not to share.]

An armed gang of white folk have declared war on the federal government and taken over what may be its least desirable building anywhere to spend the winter, as they have pledged to do.

The headquarters of the Malheur Federal Wildlife Refuge, 30 miles south of Burns, Oregon and maybe 150 miles west of Boise, Idaho, was empty at the time of the invasion.  That’s because it’s in rural southeastern Oregon in early January and there’s no reason for anyone to be there unless they’re trying to overthrow the government or something.

Overthrowing the government is an ambitious plan, however, and — as they can probably be defeated by turning off electricity, water, and playing progressive rock albums at full volume outside of their compound — it relies on their cause truly catching fire, much like the public lands around the men whose return to jail they are protesting did when they set it on fire.  (Their argument was that it was a necessary backfire; the real story seems to be that it was to cover their poaching in the area.)  Our concern here is not the righteousness of their cause, however, but: how in the name of Stonewall Jackson do they expect to get away with it?  Or, more to the point, why ain’t they already dead?

If they were Occupy, they would be dead.  If they were Black Lives Matter, they would be dead.  If they were Muslims, they would be dead.  Hell, if they were lesbian vegans, they would be dead.  What does their profound lack of already deadness say about our society?

It’s simple: we coddle armed white far right-wing loonies.  This is in part because they are armed and in part because they are loonies — but it is mostly because they are armed and far right-wing.  And the government does indeed fear the carnage that all of those white gun owners could create if they wanted to — that is the actual point of stockpiling more guns than you need to stop a home intruder — which is why the government makes sure that what they will be able to get however many weapons they want (and generally be taken alive when they are caught), African Americans and Latinos will be shot for having toy guns, guns still in boxes on the way to the cashier, suspected guns, suspected desire for guns, the capacity to have a gun, planted guns, hallucinated guns, black wallets, and black cell phones, among other threats to law and order.

Some of the leaders of this brave breaking and entering are the sons of Cliven Bundy, the Nevada rancher who brought scores of armed wackos — who were allowed to point weapons with live ammunition at federal agents and live to brag about it! — to support his ability to continue stealing resources and the trappings of ownership from the public, i.e., you.  (That’s what “public land” means — you own a share of it.)  And they got away with it.  After the wackos threatened President Obama with a seven-layer-cake of hell if he acted against them, and he didn’t, they rewarded him with jeers and allegations that he was too chicken to fight — and pledges that they’d do it again.

And now they have.

Well, Obama is probably too cautious to implement my preferred plan for the site — air bomb the building with honey and wait until the bears wake up from hibernating — so we’re likely to just see more of the same.  But there is one thing that we can do.  Democrats will do it pretty easily, but our influence with Y’all Qaeda types is limited.  This is something on which Republicans will have to take the lead.

Denounce them.  Roundly.  In no uncertain terms.  With the sort of threatening language that they would offer if instead of Cliven Bundy’s sons, this was the faculty of the African-American Studies Department of Portland State University occupying that building.  Denounce them so that no more right wingers are going to want to do anything like this again, because they know that even the most conservative field of Republican Presidential candidates in the history of the universe is not going to have their backs if they make war against their own country — our country.

Ted Cruz — Google shows no reports of you saying anything about Malheur in the past 24 hours.  Cat got your tongue?

Donald Trump — lots on the Al-Shabazz recruiting video, but nothing from you on Oregon.

Marco Rubio — you’re absent from your job here.

Jeb Bush — there’s a story about you and burning, but it’s about “through your campaign treasury.”

Chris Christie — Mr. Law and Order?  Nope — just something about “Refuses To Help Unemployed New Jersey Residents Hold Onto…”

I’ll stop there.  (Lindsay Graham and George Pataki?  This could have been your moment.  You dropped out too soon!)

To be fair, I don’t see quotes from Hillary Clinton or Bernie Sanders either — but I’ll bet that they’d have a quote if asked, and I’ll bet I know pretty much what it would be.  As for the others?  Not sure — are you?

If you see any Presidential candidate’s quotes on the topic — ones that would make the sorts of people who are engaged in or approving of this use of force against their own country either comfortable or uncomfortable — put them into comments!  We can wait all winter….

About Greg Diamond

Somewhat verbose attorney, semi-disabled and semi-retired, residing in northwest Brea. Occasionally ran for office against jerks who otherwise would have gonr unopposed. Got 45% of the vote against Bob Huff for State Senate in 2012; Josh Newman then won the seat in 2016. In 2014 became the first attorney to challenge OCDA Tony Rackauckas since 2002; Todd Spitzer then won that seat in 2018. Every time he's run against some rotten incumbent, the *next* person to challenge them wins! He's OK with that. Corrupt party hacks hate him. He's OK with that too. He does advise some local campaigns informally and (so far) without compensation. (If that last bit changes, he will declare the interest.) His daughter is a professional campaign treasurer. He doesn't usually know whom she and her firm represent. Whether they do so never influences his endorsements or coverage. (He does have his own strong opinions.) But when he does check campaign finance forms, he is often happily surprised to learn that good candidates he respects often DO hire her firm. (Maybe bad ones are scared off by his relationship with her, but they needn't be.)