“Whether that land is owned by the Feds hands or owned by the states hands it’s still not owned by you which puts you dependent on somebody else for your livelihood, something I care not to do. This is my place and I make the rules.”
Two points. No argument on you owning and ruling yours which is the ideal situation. Point two, in the scheme of things the Fed doesn’t or shouldn’t own squat. The States made it possible for them to exist, and no sovereign state is going to allow an all powerful Federal government to out own the states. As a State you would never place overwhelming power in the hands of limited Government, never. It is the nature of the Constitution itself and the enumerated powers that places limits on the Fed.
That said, we know where we are today, and it is not what the founding fathers had in mind. We know and understand original intent, because the founders were liberal in their writings explaining their intent. We have moved far from the ideal and the Fed has become the problem as the founders also saw, attempting to place as many restrictions on federal overreach as they thought prudent to apparent no avail.
Stopping the relentless progress of the beast will be the most difficult challenge “we the people” will face in the short history of this Republic. Land should be in State hands where it can be properly administered and made available to the public for benefit to the state as is the case in 38 states already. It doesn’t mean wholesale distribution or sale, it means for benefit of the State and citizens of the state, and there are 12 Western States that do not have what rightfully belongs to them for their well being and support.
And I’ll give you two points.
The feds will never give up the income generated from BLM, we can piss and moan all we want to but there’s not enough balls in Congress to make that happen.
States are just as arrogant and possessive of their holdings as the feds are. Even if it changes hands what makes anyone think it will change the way it operates. Recently the state of Texas sold off a large piece of the state owned land down by the Big Bend area to a private investor. There’s rumors about how many of our state officials fattened their wallets on that one.
One thing I know from riding in this rodeo for 66 years is politician are or will be corrupt or corrupted. The very few who are incorruptible will soon be attacked and run out of office by those that are. Put it all in private hands and get federal and state government out of it completely.
Not that it matters but for information purposes I was born in Pendleton Oregon in 1950. We didn’t live there we lived in a little town called Weston just east of there. I guess Pop got tired of the ranching life and decided to see what else was out there. Didn’t last long, two years after I was born we were back at the ranch and have been here since.