The internet is awash with talk of Nevada rancher Clive Bundy’s remarks yesterday in which he made remarks that were viewed as racist.  Liberals are gleeful with their “I told you so” mantra but that’s to be expected.  Conservatives, however, are also jumping on the bandwagon, acting as if their spouse got caught in a brothel.  They’re betrayed and hurt and suddenly they can’t get away fast enough.  Even Rand Paul “denounced” the remarks, and other conservatives are doing the same.  Even more pathetic are the conservatives who are wagging their fingers at his supporters, acting as if they were somehow prescient in refusing to support him from the get-go.

There’s only one problem: The New York Times edited their video of Bundy’s remarks, in an effort to make him sound racist.  Take a look.  Here’s the full version of what Bundy actually said:

Suddenly it seems a lot different than what was portrayed.  Context is an interesting thing, isn’t it?

I saw a lot of demonizing going on yesterday, and most of it came from conservatives.  He’s a public figure now, they said.  He has to watch what he says.  He has an obligation to the public, others said.  He’s not the right person for this fight, said still others.

Here’s some hard truth: That’s all a load of crap.

First of all, Bundy suddenly being in the spotlight doesn’t mean he should suddenly change his way of speaking.  He’s a rancher, not a public spokesperson.  He’s not going to change his 50+ years of speaking mannerisms because everyone’s staring at him.  Quite frankly, if he did, he’d lose a lot more credibility from people like me, because it would mean that he’s a chameleon who says whatever is necessary when the cameras are on him.  To tell someone that he now has to “watch what he says” is to buy into the idea that free speech is only free when it is approved by the politically correct masses—and for conservatives to be on that bandwagon is a travesty.

Secondly, Bundy doesn’t have an obligation to anyone except himself and his family.  The Americans who went down there did so without knowing Bundy, without a care for whether he was silver-tongued or not, because it’s not about him.  Here’s another piece of truth for you: It does not matter if he was a member of the KKK in his off time (which he’s not): his rights are being violated by an out of control Federal government.  THAT is the story.  THAT is the problem.  The rest of this is just distraction, and shame on those of you who allowed yourself to be led by the nose off to a different pasture.

The idea that he’s “not the right person for this fight” is ludicrous.  As others have mentioned on social media this week, conservatives are missing the point.  Everyone has secrets.  Every single one of us has something that would make us pariahs in the public’s eye if it were exposed.  If we didn’t, the government would have no point in collecting all of our data for leverage.  We don’t get to choose our fights every time—especially now.  There is no perfect hero, and Cliven Bundy never wanted to be a hero anyway.  He’s just a regular guy, who lives in a rough-and-tumble environment, who speaks plainly and doesn’t ‘say the right things’.

The real question is this: Are YOU the right person for the fight?

If the federal government was stepping all over you, if they were camped outside your doorstep with all military force, would you want others to step up and help you?  Or would you prefer that they first do a background check on you?  If you went in front of a camera and said somethingtaken out of context or something that the Left jumped on to demonize you with, would you expect and approve of everyone assuming the worst and pulling their support?

One more thing: don’t you think the media has already dug into this man’s life to the nth degree?  Don’t you think that if they had found something (an out of wedlock child, past drug use, etc.) that it would have been blasted all over the place?  If they could have found a single embarrassing thing in that man’s past, you can bet it would be front page news.  The fact that nothing has been reported is only because they couldn’t find a single thing to embarrass him with.  Could you say the same?

If you can stand there in your self-righteousness and say that you’ve never been taken out of context, or that your past would stand up against a media firestorm, then go ahead and demonize Cliven Bundy based on an edited snippet.  If your entire life being laid open—every decision, every email, every private conversation, every credit card purchase—would still make you come up smelling like roses, then go for it. Jump on the propaganda train and pull your support.  But if you’re honest with yourself, if you claim to think for yourself, if you value truth at all, then step back and think about what you’re doing.  You’re buying into the myth of political correctness.  You’re saying that it doesn’t matter what the federal government is doing to an American citizen because he’s been branded a racist by a smear campaign done by one of the most liberal, unfair and unethical publications in the country.  The same publication, mind you, that I’ve seen countless of you denounce as being a piece of trash rag that wouldn’t know honest reporting if its life depended on it.  And now you’re the same conservatives acting like the NYT is some bastion of honesty, and you’re taking this crap at face value.  It’s disgusting, and it’s pathetic, and quite frankly, I’m ashamed to see it.

Bundy didn’t give the Left ammo.  If you bought into this smear campaign, you did.