To most flatlanders this might seem like a case of some guys who didn't pay the rent on some land they were using and mounted some kind of armed resistance to the landlord coming to evict. Even when they know that the basis of any economy is the creation of wealth through added value, in the west the most essential raw material (land) is controlled by a single entity. For enterprises like the Bundy Ranch (and it is not only ranchers) there is no option, there is no land available to buy or lease except "federal" land, and who may prosper and who may not is chosen by a single master.
And almost nobody east of the continental divide understands the seriousness of central government policy whereby it (unconstitutionally) claims ownership of the majority of the real estate in the west.
I do—and I’m not only east of the divide, I’m in Canada. Of course I grew up in the backwoods of Oregon. Your point is an extremely valid one. Almost no one who grew up in the east or the urban west understands the rural west—and the resources of the rural west are effectively controlled by those who do not understand them. Seattle, Portland, Eugene, urban California, Phoenix, and Las Vegas are all bad enough, but add in their eastern allies and the culture I grew up with is condemned to a political hell.