The Malheur occupation and its aftermath

[struggle4progress]

Hal Herring, a Montana journalist, lived with the occupiers for a while and has .. written .. “The darkness at the heart of Malheur” .. in the latest issue of the High Country News ...

He found that many holding the refuge seemed to be generally likable folks, but most were also basically “crackpots” when it comes to political reasoning. They believed in a host of extreme conspiracy theories such as the Hammonds had been taken back to prison because their land was underlain by uranium, which had been bought by the Chinese government. The refuge rebels had no clue about the history of the wildlife refuge or about grazing on the public lands; oh, and they didn’t care to learn. They knew little about Ammon Bundy’s stated goal to turn the refuge land back to the ranchers it had supposedly been stolen from, and they really didn’t seem to care.

Ammon Bundy himself appeared not to know that much refuge land had always been public land. Of the private, there was just one important seller. He willingly sold 65,000 acres to the government in 1935. The Bundys didn’t know that today the refuge is grazed by local ranchers who have permits ...

Each occupier seemed to have a personal reason that accounted for them being there. These were not based on high-minded political principles, and their individual motivations hardly matched each other. The only common thing was hatred of the federal government. They all had their pocket Constitutions. These were often pulled out but rarely discussed. They served as a trump card to enhance the occupiers’ arguments or to end disagreement ...

http://www.idahostatejournal.com/opinion/columns/the-malheur-occupation-and-its-aftermath/article_0134191b-98b7-547e-aacb-4b35b20b9017.html

[Nitram]

1. Good article!

[Herman4747]

2. the original post and the link provide...

...more insight into better understanding the mindset of the extreme anti-governmenters.