This is their Altamont

Ever since the angry town hall protests in the summer of ’09, the right has been living out its own 1960s-style protest fantasy, pulling up their stadium chairs on lawns and fields all over the country and giving the proverbial finger to “the establishment.” Where their younger liberal cohorts chanted “hell no, we won’t go” these graying boomers cry, “Taxed enough already!” with such fervor one cannot help thinking they’ve been waiting for this chance their whole lives.

But all such good things eventually turn to cow piles and such is the case with the Bundy ranch standoff. This was no Woodstock. It was Altamont. No, there weren’t any stabbings, but they did have a big contingent of bikers called in for “protection.” (Everybody in the place was carrying a firearm or two so who needs knives anyway?) And unlike the party atmosphere of the Tea Party Woodstock festivals, everything about the Bundy Barbeque just seemed gritty and mean by comparison. The Facebook pages devoted to the event don’t show happy gray-haired boomers in tricorn hats waving the flag — they’re covered with disgusting photos of decomposing cows.