Making Sense of the Bundy/BLM Standoff

I paid close attention to the standoff at the Nevada ranch of Cliven Bundy. I listened to both sides and tried my best to figure out the chain of events that led to thousands of ordinary Americans standing up to the armed paramilitary BLM agents.

I may have found someone who has a balanced view of the issue, over at Powerline blog. John Hinderaker has this most excellent post: Why You Should Be Sympathetic Toward Cliven Bundy.

A sample...

Over the last two or three decades, the Bureau has squeezed the ranchers in southern Nevada by limiting the acres on which their cattle can graze, reducing the number of cattle that can be on federal land, and charging grazing fees for the ever-diminishing privilege. The effect of these restrictions has been to drive the ranchers out of business. Formerly, there were dozens of ranches in the area where Bundy operates. Now, his ranch is the only one. When Bundy refused to pay grazing fees beginning in around 1993, he said something to the effect of, they are supposed to be charging me a fee for managing the land and all they are doing is trying to manage me out of business. Why should I pay them for that?

It gets better. As Instapundit says, read the whole thing.

At the time of this writing, there are rumors that the heavily armed BLM agents will attempt a raid on the Bundy Ranch.