Cliven Bundy, the apotheosis of Tea Party hypocrisy, paranoia and prejudice, is still up to his tits in cattle.

After a mess of militias engaged in a 2014 armed stand-off with federal agents on his behalf over unpaid taxes, Bundy is still in arrears and more emboldened than ever. A year after the Fox News-enabled gun-waving, Rory Carroll of the Guardian caught up with the American who would most resemble a real-life Simpsons character if he was at all funny. He’s feeling triumphant, but the feds are still pursuing the matter with a slower and steadier approach. An excerpt: 

Wearing trademark jeans, boots, cowboy hat and bolo tie, the Mormon father of 14 was upbeat in an interview with the Guardian, speaking from the family home – which as a boy he helped his father build – and as he inspected cattle pens, trailed by his two dogs.

“I don’t think this is a battle that Cliven Bundy won. It’s a battle that the American people won. They’re just not going to put up with abuse by the federal government.”

Bundy said he was no outlaw, that he pays all taxes and state duties – but not federal fees for grazing, which he stopped paying after the BLM imposed restrictions as part of an effort to protect the endangered desert tortoise.

The federal government owns 85% of Nevada land, and a federal court upheld the claim against Bundy but he rejected its authority and legitimacy, citing a libertarian theory that the US constitution forbids federal ownership of land. “This is not about Cliven Bundy and cows. It’s about state sovereignty.”

The BLM’s retreat vindicated his stance, he said, tapping a copy of the US constitution which he keeps in a breast pocket.

Third-person grandiosity and race-tinged commentary

Two clouds, however, hover above the rancher’s apparent triumph.

A supporter named Will Michael recently pleaded guilty in a federal court in Pennsylvania to making threats against a BLM official during the standoff, a possible harbinger of prosecutions against other supporters and Bundy himself.•