The Bundy Siege is a Wake-Up Call: American Extremists Are Getting Desperate and Dangerous

Something scary is happening in the so-called libertarian west. Armed terrorists have taken over a federal building in Oregon. By now, you know the story, even as it plays out in real time. It’s an escalation of an ongoing battle that started with the Cliven Bundy Ranch fiasco, wherein a gutless Federal government let a bunch of armed kooks run roughshod over basic law enforcement. Bundy refused to pay his grazing fees, and instead decided to make his private profit with stolen public resources, threatening violence if authorities attempted to correct his infractions. This latest dustup is superficially about a couple of ranchers given five-year prison sentences for setting fires that destroyed public land, but that is only a flimsy pretext; this is another round of antisocial behavior by a group of (mostly) men who are watching the decline—if not outright elimination—of their power and influence in the west.

This battle is not about individuals in any sense. Rather, it’s a fundamental disagreement about who controls public land. Nevada, like so many western states, has a tremendous amount of land controlled by the federal government. It’s complicated and technical, pitting business interests against recreation, access versus the protection of vulnerable species and habitat. The federal government does not always get it right and there are always winners and losers, but the vast majority of people who live here want public land to be protected, and the numbers aren’t even close. Thus, the central conceit of this battle is utter nonsense. By massive majorities, Nevadans do not want to give up public land to the likes of Cliven Bundy, who would use it to enrich themselves while denying access to others.

I use Nevada as a stand in for the entire western United States, even though this latest skirmish is just over the border in Oregon. Nevada is an effective case study, in part because the Sagebrush Rebellion has deep roots here. I also know about it firsthand, because I grew up an hour away from Elko, Nevada, the epicenter of the rebellion. As a young man, I sympathized with anti-government sentiment. I parroted their talking points, insisting that Nevada was “my” land. All the while, I argued that all public land should be sold to private entities, a move that would have destroyed my personal access to the outdoor places I most loved. I defended, loudly and with great ignorance, those people who wanted to take my beloved desert away from me.

When I grew up in rural Nevada, rural sensibilities were much more central to the state, but since then, Nevada has tripled in size. Nevada is the third most urban state in America, and other western states have seen similar growth. Yet the divide on this issue is not urban versus rural. Even rural people want access to the land, and western people value outdoors experiences, regardless of party or where we come from. The people who are trying to take all federal land—those men, armed and barricaded in Oregon—are a tiny slice of well-connected extremists.

Leading this latest insurrection are two of Cliven Bundy’s children, wealthy ranchers who are furious that they aren’t allowed to pillage public resource for their personal profit. The errant stepchildren of mining, grazing and big business interests, they’ve talked a cadre of armed, confused, and violent men into joining a lost cause. The entire enterprise reeks of the kind of impotent rage reserved for failed crusades. Although I don’t know the drivers of this clown car personally, I know a great many people that share the belief system.

This ugly militia movement, a violence-soaked snapshot in time is an imitation of grass roots activism. There are a few honest and good people who want federal land turned over to the states, but that number is dwarfed by those who want that land protected. The gun-toting faction is smaller still, and those few who’ve taken up arms reflect no values at all. If they somehow squeaked out a win, we would all lose. No longer would we be able to access our own public land to hike, bike, hunt or fish. These lands are our lands.