How do small groups take outsized control of the political discourse? I was inspired by @HC_Richardson & @jbf1755’s Now & Then convo on false majorities to research the late-1970s Sagebrush Rebellion. Check out the latest Time Machine article:
cafe.com/article/the-pe…
On the morning of Ronald Reagan’s first inauguration, Jan. 20, 1981, writer Wallace Stegner published a long & lyrical op-ed in the @washingtonpost about Reagan’s views on federal land control in the West:
washingtonpost.com/archive/1981/0…
Stegner animated the struggle between conservationists and believers in federal stewardship on one side–himself included–and pro-business forces that he claimed “plan turning the West’s resources over to corporate exploitation.”
At Stegner’s writing, the Bureau of Land Management, U.S. Military, and other federal groups owned 96% of Alaska, 87% of Nevada, and 64% of Idaho. This map appeared in the Fall 1980 Utah Science Magazine (@USULibraries):
In 1976, Congress passed the Federal Land Policy Management Act, which made it difficult for private enterprise—from ranchers to developers—to acquire these lands. State gov’ts, particularly in Nevada, fought the ruling & tried to sell off lands (@csmonitor, Nov. 11, 1977):
In 1979, tenses rose over the Carter admin’s $33 million MX (“Peacekeeper”) missile project, to be centered in the Nevada and Utah deserts. Here is a Peacekeeper, which can carry 10 nuclear warheads (@usairforce, 1980s):
The plan called for the warheads to be stored in partially-underground “parking garages” connected by 10,000 miles of “racetrack” roadways. Here’s a schematic (@usairforce, 1981):
State legislators and local activists mobilized against the MX plan and the enlargement of conservation areas. Many wore rebellious buttons (@Newsweek, Sept. 17, 1979):
Elko, Nevada-based State Senator Norm Glaser summed up the mood to the @washingtonpost in November 1979: “We’re tired of being pistol-whipped by the bureaucrats and ambushed and dry-gulched by federal regulations.” Here’s the full article:
washingtonpost.com/archive/politi…
The fledgling political movement—dubbed the “Sagebrush Rebellion” after the region’s ubiquitous mountain plants—soon picked up steam. Here’s the cover of the Fall 1980 Utah Science magazine (PC: Carol Grundmann, @USULibraries):
And here’s a cartoon from a 1980 Field & Stream magazine feature showcasing the predatory nature of corporate developers gunning for release of federal control (@USULibraries):
And a @DesertNews sketch by legendary cartoonist @CalGrondahl showing how greedy developers could swoop in behind the rebels if the federal gov’t really did give up the land (via @USULibraries, Sept. 8, 1980):
Utah Sen. Orrin Hatch told a Sept. 1979 governor’s conference that the rebellion was “destined to lead the Western states to the most dramatic development in our history toward entering the Union.” Here are Reagan & Hatch (PC: Michael Evans, @reaganlibrary, Oct. 16, 1981):
Nevada Senator Paul Laxalt, a close personal Reagan friend, put a Sagebrush Rebellion bumper sticker on his Washington office door (PC: Paul Laxalt Group, May 16, 1980):
Reagan came aboard, telling a crowd in Salt Lake City in July 1980: “I happen to be one who cheers on and supports the Sagebrush Rebellion,” he told the crowd. “Count me in as a rebel.”
Yet even as the movement went national, the rebels’ position did not, by most accounts, represent the majority. A 1979 poll by the Behavior Research Center found that only about 30% of residents in eight Western states supported seizure of federal lands.
After Reagan was elected, Hatch and Nevada Senator Jim Santini pushed a bill that would have ceded federal Western lands to states. Here’s their info packet (@internetarchive, 1981):
Reagan appointed a Sagebrush ally, James Watt, as Secretary of the Interior. Watt pushed for deregulation in California offshore drilling and Montanan gas exploration. Here he is talking through land control with Reagan & economist David Linowes (@reaganlibrary, Jan. 21, 1982):
Check out the full piece to learn more about how the Sagebrush Rebellion. And listen to @HC_Richardson & @jbf1755 on Now & Then to grasp how other potent (and often dangerous) limited anti-government movements went mainstream:
cafe.com/now-and-then/b…
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