Ammon Bundy tries to provoke a fight with the feds, but the government is just waiting him out.

Photo of Ammon Bundy by Associated Press.

Here is the rather pathetic tale of the quixotic quest of Ammon Bundy from Utah, who has assembled a small ragtag bunch of guys with guns to takeover a federal wildlife refuge in Oregon.   The quest is another in the so-called Sagebrush Rebellion of Western ranchers in conflict the federal government over control of land and resources in the western states. 

Ammon's father, Cliven Bundy, created a similar standoff in Utah over refusing to pay grazing fees for his cattle on federal lands.   That almost flared up into an armed confrontation.   This time, the government is wisely just asking them to leave and then waiting them out.  Here's the tale, as reported by Rolling Stone magazine's Tim Dickinson.

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"The armed standoff in remote southeast Oregon, where white militants led by the Bundy clan have taken over federal buildings at a wildlife refuge, isn't going according to plan.

"The would-be insurrectionists are undermanned, undersupplied and exhausted. [They've been there less than a week. RR]  They've been unable to provoke the confrontation with federal agents that they chest-thumpingly declared themselves willing to die in. And they've found themselves roundly mocked on social media as 'Yee-hawdists' in the service of 'Y'all Qaeda' . . . . 

"Taking up arms against the federal government is no laughing matter, of course. And if the militants were black, brown or Muslim, they'd likely be dead by now. But for a group of heavily armed Christian white dudes play-acting at revolution, things could hardly be going worse.

"On Monday night, in fact, one Bundy brother told Oregon Public Broadcasting the militiamen might be willing to move along now — if the community requests it: 'This is their county – we can't be here and force this on them,' Ryan Bundy said. 'If they don't want to retrieve their rights, and if the county people tell us to leave, we'll leave.'

"How did the Bundy plan for revolution go sideways? The troubled evolution of the plot can be traced via Ammon Bundy's social media presence.

"December 29.  The grand scheme to take a 'hard stand' against federal 'tyranny' took shape in the days after Christmas. In a video posted December 29, Ammon Bundy, son of the infamous deadbeat rancher Cliven, decried the 'tremendous abuses' faced by a pair of Oregon cattlemen convicted of arson by the federal government. 'We have to say that either we're OK with these gross, blatant violations of the constitution… or we make a stand,' Bundy declared.

"That's when Bundy, fighting tears, issued a call to action to his family's militant, anti-government supporters: 'I'm asking you — and you know who you are: You that came, and you that felt to come, to the Bundy Ranch — I'm asking you to come to Burns [Oregon] on January 2, to make a stand.'

"December 31.  Almost from the beginning, there were warning signs that this plot wasn't gelling, because of internal strife in the 'patriot' community. In his next video, posted on New Year's Eve, a nervous looking Ammon Bundy calls out to militia members across the country. He pleads with them to flout the orders of militia leaders who, he reveals, had been calling for a 'stand down' — instead of a standoff — in Oregon.

"Looking into the camera lens, Bundy says: 'I am wanting to talk to the individual, to the patriot. This is not the time to stand down,' he says, 'It's time to stand up. And come to Harney County. We need your help. And we're asking for it. No matter what your leader says… you need to get to Burns on the 2nd.'

"January 2.  Bundy did find followers, including men like John Ritzheimer, the Arizona man who organized the gun-toting protest of the Islamic Community Center of Phoenix last October.  Ritzheimer ventured to Oregon and declared himself, in a goodbye video to his family, '100 percent willing to lay my life down to fight against tyranny in this country.'

"Seizing an unoccupied federal complex wasn't the tricky part. Following a demonstration on the streets of Burns on Saturday, January 2, the Bundy militiamen drove 30 miles south to execute their takeover of the compound at the federal Malheur National Wildlife Refuge — which was closed for the weekend, and to which somehow they had obtained a full set of keys. . . . 

"In the immediate aftermath of the Saturday takeover, Bundy talked a big game: 'We're planning on staying here for years, absolutely,' he said. 'This is not a decision we've made at the last minute.'

"The militants also told reporters that their numbers were legion — as many as 150. Oddly, however, Bundy also issued a call for backup: 'Those who... feel the need to stand, we're asking them to come. We have a facility that we can house them in. We need you to come and be unified with us so we can be protected,' he said.

"January 3.  By light of day it becomes clear the militants' manpower was greatly exaggerated: Credible estimates from visitors to the complex put their number at fewer than two dozen, and perhaps as low as 15 men. And this skeleton crew is clearly struggling to secure the sprawling complex in the bitter cold of the Oregon high desert, where temperatures drop into the single digits at night.

"By Sunday night a visibly exhausted Ammon Bundy made a new call for reinforcement, invoking his divine inspiration: 'I know that what we did is right. I know the Lord is involved, and I know that we're going to see great things come from this,' Bundy said. 'But we need you. We need you,' he pleaded. 'We have a group of wonderful people here that are strong. We've got good numbers. But there is a lot to do, and we will eventually get tired if we do not have help. We also need more of a defense.  Need to make sure that there is enough people here that nobody comes down upon us — and that is a very real reality right now. So we need you to come and we need you be part of this.'

"January 4.  The militant's preparedness for an as-long-as-it-takes standoff was similarly laughable. By Monday, it was clear the militants were under-resourced, and hungry. Supporters put out a call online to send 'supplies and snacks'. . . . 

"As the standoff has dragged on, the federal government seems content to let the militants freeze in isolation — and tire of their make-believe revolution.

"Even once-reliably anti-government Republicans are turning their backs: Ted Cruz, who once sympathized with Cliven Bundy's stand against the Obama administration's 'jackboot authoritarianism,' has called on Bundy's sons to 'stand down.'

"The Harney County Sheriff released a statement saying flatly: 'It's time for you to leave our community.'   [The latest is that yesterday the sheriff offered to escort them safely out of the county.   So far Bundy has not accepted the offer. RR]

"Even the wife of one of the two local ranchers — for whose honor and justice the militants claim to be ready to lay down their lives — has been throwing shade: 'I don't really know the purpose of the guys who are out there,' she told Oregon Public Broadcasting.

"Instead of building the fearsome anti-government insurgency of their fever dreams, the hungry, dirty, exhausted Bundy militants are looking more and more like the Gang That Couldn't Shoot Straight. Here's hoping they have the sense to lay down their weapons before their true marksmanship is tested."

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The sad fact is that the Bundy's quest is real, and it's not getting a fair hearing because of this ill-conceived and ill-planned debacle.    I don't mean that these guys' paranoid hatred of the government's alledged "jackbooted authoritarianism" is valid.  But the federal governement does own vast lands in the West, and the question is whether the states and local governments should have more say in how the land is used, whether for grazing cattle, exploration for resources, or development -- or to continue being preserved as national parks and protected wildernesses.   Of course, I'm in favor of saving as much land as possible for the latter.   But the fact is that, in some Western states, the federal government owns more than half of the land in the state.

It's not that the feds took over people's land.   This is land that was acquired by our government in the expansion of our country westward.    Various programs for land grants and homesteading led to private ownership by individuals.  Should that still be possible, as opposed to the feds renting it out for grazing or mining?

So there is a legitimate argument to be made.   But this isn't the way to go about it:  going to another state to pick a fight that local people weren't interested in themselves.  It has only made the Bundy crowd a laughing stock, even among conservatives who may agree with them.  And it's going to be hard for these macho men to back down and just go home -- without some display of toughness and willingness to die for a lost cause.

It's not over yet, but it's clear that we're not going to have the fight Ammon Bundy wanted.   Kudos to the cool heads in the federal government for just waiting them out and refusing to be drawn into an armed confrontation.

Ralph