BUNKERVILLE, Nevada -- At the Bundy camp last week, pundits and politicians descended on Bunkerville, Nevada, to throw in their American flag hats with the BLM protestors. A FOX news van had been parked by the side of the road for days. Up on the ridge, militia snipers kept a trained watch as Bundy held court, and disciples from far and wide came to share their personal theories as to why the government was enforcing a court order.

But on Thursday, we witnessed a mainstream exodus from Bundy's flank. Sean Hannity, Bundy's biggest booster, called his racist remarks "beyond despicable," but maintained that they should not taint the supporters who "for the right reasons saw this case as government overreach."

Exactly how difficult was it, though, to determine pretty early on that Bundy and his followers were using the threat of force to back up some terrifyingly misguided beliefs?

During the few hours I visited last week, this was what was said.

In the background, a singer with an American-flag guitar warms up the stage with a raspy hollering he explains as Tibetan throat singing. Suddenly noticing a man off to the side shaking maracas, he stops and grips the mic:

"Is there really a black man in the house?" A lone "whoo" goes up from the folding chairs. "You're with the media, right?" The cameraman nods, and the singer returns his focus to the folding chairs. "So, are we racists here today? That's how they're trying to spin this one — this is good. Channel 13 came at me the other day — a cute little blonde, of course. They sent her at me, y'know, go get the story! Go get the radical…" The generator cuts out, silencing the mic, and the story about how he isn't a racist is lost.

A militia member with the group Oath Keepers named Mark, who drove in from out of state by way of Zion National Park ("which was absolutely beautiful — you should go"), offers to explain to me the truth behind public land management.

"The assumption is that the BLM is part of the federal government. But we need to check the facts on that one. The BLM doesn't work for the government: they work for the United Nations. They might as well be wearing blue helmets. If we find out there's money being exchanged between Harry Reid and the Chinese government, no one should be surprised."

A self-trained lawyer tells me the same. He adds that Bar-certified lawyers, like the ones who prosecuted Bundy, have sworn loyalty to the British government, whose statutes encourage sex with clients. "That's what they do with all their clients."

It's dizzying and hot at the camp, and a very friendly man named Roy, wearing an Obama t-shirt with a joker smile painted on, hands me a cold bottle. He's from nearby Mesquite and has been a close friend and supporter of Bundy's these last few years. When I tell him I'm from New Mexico, the former cop says he has a very good buddy who used to work as a sheriff in my area.

"He got in a bit of trouble," he chuckles. "He pulled over a carload of illegals one night, didn't have room to haul 'em all, so he put a chain around their neck and put a padlock through it, went to the next one, then he chained 'em to a tree!"

He buckles with laughter as the story heats up. "Then he left 'em and went to town to get his pickup to haul 'em all back in. So, you might imagine, that didn't play well — ha! You're a young'un, but everything wasn't against the law, way back when."

He says it's now being proved that the BLM acted on orders from Troy and Harry Reid, who want to build a solar farm on the land — or a wind farm, he says. He recommends that I look up a Fox News segment that explains how the government is trying to put people out of work, "'Enemy of the State', it's called."

Caty Enders for Esquire

Caty Enders for Esquire

"So I want you to understand," Bundy told the crowd, "This is not my job, it's YOUR job."

Soon enough, a handful of junior politicians and the Bundy family are ushered on stage with a full compliment of assault-weaponed militia and a man with binoculars.

The crowd, fresh off their victory at the Battle of Bunkerville, gives Bundy a standing ovation. But he doesn't seem pleased. He reproaches the crowd for failing to follow the word of God – to the letter – which he says is being delivered through him. They failed, for example, to follow his instructions to tear down the toll booths at Lake Mead and disarm the Park Service.

"The message I gave to you all was a revelation that I received. And yet not one of you can seem to even quote it."

Cliven continues, sermon-like: "The records of our bible — how long have they been kept? Thousands of years. They've been turned over generation after generation, buried, and all kinds of things happen to 'em. And yet, here, something I felt was inspired [by God] and yet we haven't even carried it forth for even a couple of days. Shame on us." Smattering of clapping.

He goes on to explain that, although they managed to deter the BLM, they failed to do it "within one hour," as the revelation had prophesied. So when an hour passes, he decides to get in his bulldozer and march on the BLM himself. The dozer gets stuck in the mud and he receives another revelation.

"It come to my mind real plain — the good Lord said, 'Bundy, it's not your job, it's THEIR job.' So we come back over here and heard that they had brought some cattle back. So I want you to understand," he said. "This is not my job, it's YOUR job.

"This morning, I said a prayer, and this is what I received. I heard a voice say, 'Sheriff Gillespie, your work is not done. Every sheriff across the United States, take the guns away from the United States bureaucrats.'" Lots of clapping for this.

Bundy goes on for a good while and militia members are forced to leave their chairs to walk around and get water.

A former Arizona sheriff turned Texas political candidate, Richard Mack, speaks next.

"I don't believe the BLM has any authority whatsoever — they have no law enforcement authority in Clark County." In conclusion he yells into the microphone, "(William Wallace!) FREEEDOOOOOM!"

After the speeches, Nevada Assemblywoman Michelle Fiore steps off the stage. Wearing a diamond-studded pistol pendant, she raises her eyebrows in the direction of a shadowy government operation. "When you really look at this, it's not about the environmental stuff — it's a lot deeper than what's coming out in the media."

In the downtime, a group of men laments the way the world has changed. Obama, a Muslim Kenyan, doesn't let kids say the pledge in school anymore. Steve, from Beaver, Utah, says it's all down to regulation and changes that happened during Vietnam. "I want it to be like it was growing up in the fifties. I want it to be just like that — for [the kids]. Though it can't be just like that, because they have the internet."

"That's what's wrong: the Internet," agrees another.

Caty Enders for Esquire

Caty Enders for Esquire

"GOOGLE DOCTORS THAT REMOVE MICROCHIPS."

Behind us, an older man, whose face is cut up from tumbling down a hill during the protest, gets into his beige sedan to leave. It's covered in lettering:

IF YOU WERE BORN IN 1980 AND AFTER. YOU MAY BE IMPLANTED WITH A GOVERNMENT MICROCHIP WITHOUT YOUR KNOWLEDGE: GOOGLE DOCTORS THAT REMOVE MICROCHIPS.

"Google MKUltra," he says cryptically, "Then you'll find what I'm about."

Before leaving the Bunkerville trenches, I watch Sean Hannity's Bundy segment that aired the day before the militias took up arms against the BLM. Hannity mistakenly asserts that the federal government is trying to kick him off state land — and then he says something that only makes sense in the context of the Bundy camp.

"I'm worried about the lies that are told to us about the NSA, about the IRS, about what happened in Benghazi, and the lies that sold healthcare. I'm frankly concerned that the government is making a deal over someth—" before going too far, Hannity cuts himself off and changes course. "I don't know why they're taking a stand here. Has anyone given you any information why?"

Welfare negroes, the United Nations, sexually devious lawyers, satan, a Chinese solar farm, microchips, secret-agent NPS, a Muslim-Kenyan president, hippies, illegals. Take your pick.

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