These clowns are engaging in exactly the opposite of what they claim to be engaging in. Many contingents of 'the people' (locals) want the land in question managed exactly the way it's being managed; it is the 'will of the people'.
Seems to me that the "will of the people" as expressed in official votes at the ballot box demonstrated that marriage was the conjugal union between a man and a woman. So said "the people" in every State where they were allowed to vote on the issue. EVERY single State that held a popular vote saw that vote come down on the side of defining marriage as a union of complementary genders.
But 5 Supreme Judges said that the 14th amendment requires otherwise. Do you agree with otherwise support the Supreme Court ruling that (their interpretation of) the US federal Constitution is the Supreme Law of the land and overcomes even the "will of the people"?
If the local folks want the land managed as wildlife preserve, they are fully empowered under the federal constitution to have their State government so manage the land.
But the federal constitution doesn't permit nor even contemplate the federal government owning massive tracts of land within the several semi-sovereign States. So no matter how much "the people" may want that, until enough of those people, across enough of the nation agree so as to pass an appropriate Constitutional Amendment granting such power to the feds, the feds are not authorized to own that land.
Do you realize the way federal ownership of land oppresses all of us?
How would your State fare if 70% of its land mass was off the tax rolls and unavailable for any form of development that would provide jobs or contribute to the economy? There are counties in my State where 90% of the land is federally owned and basically sitting entirely idle. How well would your county provide any services, what would your local economy look like, if 90% of the land could be used for nothing but taking a walk?
The latest budget contained a total of $400 million in PILT payments to Western States. This is a pittance of what the current taxable value is, and the current taxable value is a fraction of what the real value would be (in both taxes and economic multiplier effect) if the land and associated resources could be appropriately developed. But for a county that is 90% federal land, getting the PILT payment is the difference between having a public school or not. So Congressmen and Senators from a dozen Western States are held hostage. Support the budget that adds $3 TRILLION in new debt, or don't get your PILT payments.
Yet, a small group of armed, out of state buffoons have deemed themselves the ultimate arbiters of justice on this issue, despite calls to leave from the local sheriff and residents of the nearby town.
I have to wonder whether your use of the terms "a small group of armed, out of state buffoons" to refer to the US BLM, Forest Service, and other federal land owners doesn't violate some forum rule against insult.
It is a small group of armed, out of state buffoons from the federal government who have declared themselves the final arbiters of how the majority of land inside semi-sovereign Western States will be managed and used. A bunch of city slickers from the east coast who wouldn't know which end of a cow to feed and which end to shovel up after, have no idea how much an acre-foot of water really is, and don't the know the difference between the true gems of vistas and views in the West vs run-of-the-mill vastness of which we have a near endless supply, are so arrogant as to think they can better manage Western lands than can those of us who actually live here, whose families carved homes out an area that most eastern urbanites of the 19th century didn't think was even inhabitable by white men.
I do not believe the armed takeover of the federal shack is the right course of action.
But how dare some out-of-State tree hugger presume to tell me that I and my fellow citizens in the West are less capable of managing our local lands than are the citizens of the East?
Get your noses out Western Land issues yourself, before presuming to cast stones on what folks from Nevada may be doing in rural, Oregon. They are misguided in the tactics. But they understand Western land issues in a way you'll never allow yourself to contemplate.
Charles