Political figures who rallied to defend Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy must have known they were taking a risk. Indeed, much of the Republican establishment chose to do the exact opposite precisely because they were afraid to gamble on a man who doesn’t recognize the legitimacy of the United States government.

But some prominent GOP officials rolled the dice anyway. Fox News and Glenn Beck celebrated the rancher as a hero , while U.S. senators like Rand Paul (R-Ky.) and Dean Heller (R-Nev.) cheered Bundy on, calling him a “ patriot ,” even as he declared an ability to ignore laws and court orders he doesn’t like.

It’s become increasingly difficult to maintain this posture. For one thing, anyone relying on the threat of violence to act above the law hasn’t earned the backing of anyone in the American mainstream. For another, some of the basic elements of Bundy’s claims now appear to be false

“I want to tell you one more thing I know about the Negro,” he said. Mr. Bundy recalled driving past a public-housing project in North Las Vegas, “and in front of that government house the door was usually open and the older people and the kids – and there is always at least a half a dozen people sitting on the porch – they didn’t have nothing to do. They didn’t have nothing for their kids to do. They didn’t have nothing for their young girls to do.