The right-wing militia occupying the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in eastern Oregon claim they are resisting the tyrannical overreach of a distant and unfriendly government. But aside from antipathy for the Bureau of Land Management and frustration with the federal government, Ammon Bundy and his companions seem generally vague or unsure of their broader mission.

They’d no doubt hoped their actions would prompt a larger response — squatting in a remote complex of federal buildings was meant to launch a general movement to occupy public land and bring it under individual ownership. With the chances of this happening close to nil, Bundy’s posse could, with considerable charity, be considered a vanguard formation without an extensive social base.

The immediate catalyst for the militants’ descent on Malheur was the re-sentencing of Dwight and Steven Hammond, who were ordered to serve the mandatory minimum sentences for their arson convictions after previously receiving exceptionally light punishments.