Over the last week, hundreds of thousands of recent Republican voters strongly and very openly protested MAGA’s disastrous demands to sell our Public Lands. In a world where total loyalty is now the coin of the MAGA realm, where people’s lives are ruined for merely criticising Trump, these events are a potential political earthquake, and I hope Democrats feel the rumble.
The group is impressive both in terms of number and makeup; they are hunters, fishing guides, camo-wearing influencers, gun-owning rural voters, and vocal members of otherwise extremely conservative advocacy groups. They are not shy; they yelled criticism from mountain tops, hiking trails, bass boats, stream banks, and duck blinds, recording it all in social media posts, phone calls, and letters to Congress. The passionate statements of opposition are still piling up even now.
Montana Dispatch -Truth, Beauty & Resistance - by Ryan Busse is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.
Given the long history of Republican attacks on conservation and public lands and official policy statements in state and national party platforms, it’s true that some had to know the threats were coming. Still, many others expressed a genuine combination of anger and shock: “This is not the MAGA I voted for @POTUS,” said one exasperated commenter on the MeatEater Instagram feed who also hoped Trump was following the same thread.
The cries of protest rose from all corners of the nation, even ruby red rural northern Californians who maintain an ongoing demand for seceding from the more liberal southern portion of their state, came out swinging when they learned public land in their backyards was on the chopping block. A poignant article SFGate captured the emotion:1
“I’m not blindly following Mr. Trump’s administration,” said Allen Schrage, a lifelong off-roader, Republican, self-avowed Trump voter, and president of the Mendocino 4x4 Club. “If he does something that’s not right in there, I’m going to be the first to raise a stink about it.”
Trump Voter and Critic - Allen Schrage - Mendocino CA
Many thousands of other average working people across the country made similar statements, but the criticism also came from people with immense influence. Cameron Hanes, a leading hunting influencer who sells merch bearing his “keep hammering” logo, is a man with whom I have much to disagree. He recently spent the afternoon yucking it up with Pete Hegseth and Tulsi Gabbard in Washington, DC, posting about it all, as he does about all of his adventures, to the more than 1.7 million people who follow him on Instagram.
Hanes, whose followers pretend to eschew the elite, is himself a member of that group. Still, he also represents so many men that Democrats lost in the last election. He’s a guy who loves working out, hunting, popping off about politics, and flexing for the camera.
Because of his cultural connections, Hanes has been valuable to the GOP. He was called by national Republican leaders to campaign across the nation for Trump. He appeared on stage with Ted Nugent and Trump Jr. at multiple events in key states where hunting and fishing culture were identified as critical connectors by Republican strategists.
To put it bluntly, this ain’t exactly the guy you’d expect to see publicly hammering the Trump administration. Yet, this week, between the videos of target practice and leg day, Cameron Hanes made a public statement on Instagram that should get the attention of every single Democratic leader:
“This is why We The People don’t trust politicians or these big BS bills that include so much nonsense we don’t want or is purposely hidden within in an effort to dupe voters while dirty politicians get rich, pat themselves on the back and take part in their “theatrics” as congress wastes time and money figuring out ways to essentially steal from the American people.
If the Big Beautiful Bill includes the “disposable land sale” language it’s not worth the paper it’s printed on. And, those supporting it should lose their job in the next election cycle or get primaried out before then.
From @potus on down…you want to lose or alienate your voter base out west here? Start talking about selling public land. You guys just don’t get it. Or, worse yet, don’t care.”
Steve Rinella’s Meateater Podcast is one of the most popular in the hunting space and boasts more than 1.2 million Instagram followers. Rinella is one of the most influential figures in the outdoor industry, and his fans are a near 100% match for the young men that Democrats are spending millions trying to recover.
The longer arc of Rinella’s politics is complex, but like Cameron Hanes, he has recently played an important role in the election of the national MAGA Republicans. Before the election, he downplayed Project 2025 (which contains the roadmap for selling public land). He gave fawning interviews to MAGA campaign spokespeople like Donald Trump Jr, Ted Nugent, and Tucker Carlson. Many of his followers got the message and lapped it up, but some were angered by his rightward shift. This is one of hundreds of protest comments offered in response to recent MeatEater posts:
“Seven Rinella openly advocates for an America First agenda, and you had the stars of the GOP and Project 2025 stroll through. You voted for this, you absolute clowns. Thanks for ruining it for everyone else.”
After the election, and even when the DOGEing actions of Elon Musk were obviously horribly destructive to wild places and wildlife, Rinella continued cheering the Trump administration with a series of podcasts in which he offered weird praise and justifications for the thoughtless firings of federal land management employees and gutting of land management agencies.
But as with Cameron Hanes and millions of other hunters, selling Public Lands is a bridge too far for MeatEater. Rinella has stopped short of criticising Republicans or calling for them to be unelected, like so many in the community, including Hanes. But refreshingly, he has stepped up and loudly demanded his followers help kill the dangerous legislation, and he has reverted to a focus on his once-vigorous defense of public land as being integral to what it means to be an American.
“They’re calling it a solution for housing and development. But let’s not kid ourselves—this is about losing access. Losing the ground that generations of hunters, anglers, and outdoor folks have relied on. It’s about selling off the wild places that feed our freezers, teach our kids, and remind us what it means to be connected to the land.”
Steve Rinella (right) presents Senator Steve Daines with a conservation award in Washington DC
Ok…Stop for a second and repeat some of the phrases you read above. “Should lose their job” “Dirty Politicians” “Steal from the American People?” “Wild places” “Theatrics” “Connected to the land”
HEY DEMOCRATS, DO YOU HEAR YOURSELVES? WAKE UP - these are Conservative hunters, MAGA devotees, rural voters, and Republican influencers literally embracing our values and speaking our language here! This is a wide-open door!
The question now is, will Democrats be smart enough to walk through it? Will they be hungry enough to reach out and practice the politics of addition by embracing hunting and fishing culture? You add people to your political movement by seizing on fault lines like this.
I have a long history in this effort and have been disappointed with my experience. In the lead up to the 2020 election, I served on a Democratic presidential campaign committee that focused on outreach to hunters and anglers in key battleground states.
I put a lot of time and energy into it, and so did more than two dozen other highly qualified Democrats who are also die-hard hunters and anglers. We could see that the voters we needed to reach were the same ones now following people like Steve Rinella and Cam Hanes, the same ones now rising up to protect public lands. These people shared a culture with us, and we told the campaign that reaching “our people” meant embracing culture, not just regurgitating policies or throwing platitudes their way.
The campaign could see the same voters and values. They didn’t debate the need to reach them. And we got some lip service, and they deployed a few dollars for ads. Still, in the opinion of several of us on that committee, national Democrats did not care enough to reach out and connect, embrace, and CELEBRATE the culture like we had hoped.
I think you can at least double this critical assessment for the 2024 election. Remember when the Harris campaign rushed Gov Walz (who actually is a real hunter and very good shotgun shooter) into a last-minute pheasant hunting scene? That forced, sloppy half-ass effort just ain’t going to cut it. People who define themselves by culture can spot a lackluster effort like that from a mile away. We must unite with people in a way that seems like we mean it.
Former Montana Governor Brian Schweitzer, who is one of the best politicians Montana has ever seen, preaches: “Values unite and issues divide.” We don’t need expensive DNC projects to find lost young men; we don’t need a liberal Joe Rogan, we need Democrats to be smart enough to recognize shared values and to dive in and celebrate cultural connectors like hunting and fishing.
All the people fighting for public lands alongside us are telling us this is a winner, and I think it’s time to listen!
The potential sale of public lands has helped to open up conversations with my conservative friends and family. Keeping our public wilderness areas is a very American ideal and tradition we can all agree on. Stop the Sale!
Thank you, Ryan! I grew up in Montana and have the same aggravations towards mainstream democratic messages and prioritizing only certain states, voters, or a select set of issues. Culture and values are where it’s at.
The potential sale of public lands has helped to open up conversations with my conservative friends and family. Keeping our public wilderness areas is a very American ideal and tradition we can all agree on. Stop the Sale!
Thank you, Ryan! I grew up in Montana and have the same aggravations towards mainstream democratic messages and prioritizing only certain states, voters, or a select set of issues. Culture and values are where it’s at.