April 20, 2014

From this Friday's PBS Newshour, NYT's columnist and regular, David Brooks did his best to downplay the antigovernment 'Patriots' that gathered near the scene of Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy's dispute over cattle grazing rights.

It looks like Bobo and Dana Milbank were reading the exact same set of talking points, with both of them claiming that this protest in no way is representative of a rebirth of the militia movement. Brooks wants us to believe these people only engaged in "pseudo-militia activity" and that they're "otherwise politically un-ideological." I would beg to differ.

JUDY WOODRUFF: So, David, is this something — I mean, does this man have a legitimate grievance against the federal government?

DAVID BROOKS: Not the way he’s doing it.

I mean, he’s self-discrediting, the way he’s doing it. You know, you go out West and you hear grievous against the BLM constantly. There’s — and I think there’s probably a lot of frustration with working with the BLM. But it comes in waves. And I would not say we’re at a high wave.

Certainly, in the Clinton years, you heard of real frustration. And that’s the Sagebrush — part of the Sagebrush revolution was at its peak, but now I think you hear low-level gripings. So I wouldn’t say this represents a mass movement of any sort. It does seem to me more like — more like pseudo-militia activity than a genuine rebellion among people who are otherwise politically un-ideological.

JUDY WOODRUFF: So, no sense that this is going to spread to other parts of the West?

DAVID BROOKS: I certainly have not heard that in my visits out there.

Never mind the fact that these groups have promised that there will be more incidents like this to come. If no one mentioned it at one of Bobo's book signings, it didn't happen.

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