Nevada Governor Brian Sandoval (Photo credit: Brian Sandoval)

In case you’re not familiar with the story, The Blaze has this:

Cliven Bundy, the last remaining rancher in the southern Nevada county, stands in defiance of a 2013 court order demanding that he remove his cattle from public land managed by the U.S. Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Land Management.

The 67-year-old veteran rancher, who has compared the situation to similar confrontations with government officials in Ruby Ridge and Waco, Texas, told TheBlaze that his family has used land in the 600,000-acre Gold Butte area since the late 1800s.

“I have raised cattle on that land, which is public land for the people of Clark County, all my life. Why I raise cattle there and why I can raise cattle there is because I have preemptive rights,” he said, explaining that among them is the right to forage.

“Who is the trespasser here? Who is the trespasser on this land? Is the United States trespassing on Clark County, Nevada, land? Or is it Cliven Bundy who is trespassing on Clark County, Nevada, land? Who’s the trespasser?”

While some “Republicans” may consider this kind of heavy-handed and over-the-top oppression by government to be no big deal, others may see the kind of similarities that bring to mind a resistance to oppression that was once comfortable in the minds of Americans.

In fact, while Nevada Governor Brian Sandoval’s statement seems measured, it also seems clear that his sentiments are closer to Bundy’s appreciation of freedom than that of the jack-booted feds:

“Most disturbing to me is the BLM’s establishment of a ‘First Amendment Area’ that tramples upon Nevadans’ fundamental rights under the U.S. Constitution. To that end, I have advised the BLM that such conduct is offensive to me and countless others and that the ‘First Amendment Area’ should be dismantled immediately. No cow justifies the atmosphere of intimidation which currently exists nor the limitation of constitutional rights that are sacred to all Nevadans. The BLM needs to reconsider its approach to this matter and act accordingly.”

Notice that Governor Sandoval points out an overriding point that seems to have escaped the feds in their zeal to force their will on free Americans: that a human being and their God-given rights are of far more importance than a cow.

How sad that our government (and some “Republicans”) seem to have forgotten this.

(No “endangered” turtle is worth it, either)

*** Bob Ellis *** Is a conservative writer and Life and Liberty News contributor

More commentary from Bob Ellis can be seen daily on the American Clarion