A reality based independent journal of observation & analysis, serving the Flathead Valley & Montana since 2006. © James Conner.
Montana Democrats demote Gianforte from billionaire to multi-millionaire. Gianforte’s rich, but he’s probably not a billionaire, so “multi-millionaire” is closer to the truth. Indeed, it probably is the truth, making the demotion an act of honesty.
But Montana Democratic Party spokesman Jason Pitt is back to prefacing Gianforte’s wealth status with “New Jersey,” which is not the truth. It’s a lie, a schoolyard taunt. It’s unprofessional, and it undermines the veracity of the rest of the press release. Why Jim Larson, chair of the party, Nancy Keenan, its executive director, and Gov. Steve Bullock's re-election campaign, think Pitt’s lies help their party and their party’s candidates is beyond my ken.
Ben Long’s essay on public lands and Bundy’s militia. The Hill today published an essay by Kalispell writer and conservationist Ben Long that puts the occupation of the headquarters of the Malheur wildlife refuge into political and historical context. As he rightly observes, this incident is part of a long standing, powerful, and determined movement to convert the lands we all own to private ranches, mines, and oil fields:
Make no mistake: the Bundy clan is one arm of a political monster that wants to grab and demolish America’s legacy of public lands. This “land transfer” movement isn’t all hicks in felt hats, spewing legal nonsense and toting granddad’s horse pistol. It includes lobbyists and attorneys with polished boots and fat wallets, working diligently from western capitals to Washington D.C.
Like the old song says: Some will rob you with a six-gun, some with a fountain pen.
Today, they are aiming at a remote National Wildlife Refuge. Tomorrow, it will be your favorite national forest campground, fishing stream or hunting spot. Who knows where they will stop: Yellowstone and Grand Canyon are on their maps.
That may sound over the top, but it’s not. Modern efforts to make public lands private date from the post-war 1940s, when the stockgrowers, then as now ringleaders of the movement, tried to grab public land. Their attempting hijacking failed after historian Bernard DeVoto, in his classic in Harpers, The West Against Itself, blew the whistle on their scheme.
The Malheur occupation is neither civil disobedience, nor terrorism, not sedition. Instead, it’s a dangerous publicity stunt by potentially dangerous people, but that so far has been peaceful.
The refuge’s HQ was not occupied when Bundy’s adventurers arrived. Nothing was seized at gunpoint or by threat. The Doofus Brigade just opened the bunkhouse door, possibly without force, and walked in with their cigarettes, canned beans, ramen noodles, and cell phones, over which they announced their grandiose objectives. Yes, they had long guns and sidearms, but they didn’t use them.
At Talking Points Memo, Josh Marshall, who becomes more stridently politically correct by the hour, calls the occupation “white privilege performance art,” a term Paul Krugman likes. But while that’s a colorful rhetorical flourish, it’s not accurate. The occupation of the Malheur is not about race. It’s about land management policies that the Bundys and their ragtag militia don’t like. Occupying the refuge’s HQ gives them a soapbox for venting their frustrations and grievances. It’s cow pasture political theatre. Think Viva Max!, or Gilbert and Sullivan, not 9/11 or the federal building bombing in Oklahoma City.
The occupation will continue for awhile, but not forever. Law enforcement officers are standing back, with federal agents standing way back, letting Bundy and his boys stew in their own stupidity. It’s the same approach that succeeded with the Montana Freemen 20 years ago. At some point, the Malheur occupiers’ story will cease being interesting, their wives will tell them to come home, and they’ll pack up and leave, taking advantage of Sheriff Ward’s offer of safe passage out of the county. Then they’ll face federal charges.
The Malheur occupiers’ provocations are exasperating, infuriating, and not without an element of danger. But it’s important not to overreact to them. That’s what they want. Let them strut and preen and prattle until reality sinks in fully and they’re finally ready to listen to reason.
And its equally important to focus less on the publicity stunt at the Malheur and more on the low level terrorism — threats, slashed tires, etc. — against federal employees that occurs on an almost daily basis in the American west’s empty quarter — low level terrorism that’s sometimes tacitly countenanced by politicians of both parties. The Bureau of Land Management and federal government backed away from a confrontation with Cliven Bundy, perhaps wisely, then failed to follow through by collecting Bundy’s unpaid grazing fees by another method, and quietly arresting the militia types who brandished weapons and threatened federal employees. That lack of follow through emboldened Ammon Bundy and his brothers to believe they could occupy the Malheur with impunity.