In the tiny town of Paradise, Montana, rancher Cliven Bundy offered few specifics as to the future of his movement. Instead, he preached his particular form of anti–federal government gospel — and readied his followers for whatever comes next.
An SUV with Nevada plates, driven by a man with a wide-brimmed cowboy hat, stopped to talk to a man wearing an orange security vest, then pulled forward. “The package has arrived,” the security man said into his radio. “I repeat, the package has arrived.” “The package” is Cliven Bundy — the Nevada rancher who, earlier this month, was released from prison after a federal judge dismissed all charges against him for participating in an armed standoff at his family’s ranch near Bunkerville over unpaid grazing fees. Over the last decade, Bundy has become the figurehead for a growing movement of “constitutionalists” who believe the federal government has infringed upon states’ rights. In most cases, including Bundy’s, the issue comes down to the use of federally managed land — which makes up over half of all land in the West. Bundy has refused to pay grazing fees to the federal government since 1993, and engaged in a standoff with federal agents over that refusal in 2014. But he was not arrested until 2016, while en route to the occupation of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in Eastern Oregon, led by his son, Ammon. Before Bundy’s release, he was already a folk hero — his last name had come to signify a bold refusal, a protest of the way the federal government has blasphemed the founding intents of its fathers. But after the judge’s dismissal of all charges — and the revelation that prosecutors had failed to turn over important evidence to defense attorneys and violated Bundy’s due process — he has been positioned as something of an oracle, primed to focus the loose, long-simmering anger into action. The hundreds who showed up in Paradise weren’t just there to hear him speak. They were waiting to be told what to do next...more
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