It's a valid point. The government taking a purchased land right is no different than the government taking away land, and at the very least Bundy is entitled to just compensation. There is also the question of whether protecting turtles is a legitimate "public use."
If we don't fight for the Bundys of the world, sooner or later they come for us.
Bundy does not recognize the US Constitution. In his own words, he doesn't "recognize the United States government as even existing", which translates, any way that you look at it into not recognizing the U.S. Constitution, since that is the instrument that created the United States government. Worthy of note is that Cliven Bundy and the Bundy clan have been paying their fees for the 59 years leading up to 1993 to the very same government that today he doesn't acknowledge as even existing, without protesting its legitimacy.
He doesn't recognize the legitimacy of own State's Constitution. It stopped suiting him the moment that his grazing fees went up in 1993.
He doesn't really recognize the authority of the County that he resides him. They've repeatedly told him that they can't accept his grazing fees payment, and that he needs to make those payments to the BLM, but he will not do that.
He doesn't recognize our Court system, nor will he abide by the Court's decisions since he doesn't agree with them, and in doing that he once again he shows his disregard for our Constitution.
It his his State's Constitution that transferred the land to the Federal government long before the Bundys arrived in Nevada.
It is the US Constitution that gives the United States the power to manage those lands that are the property of the United States.
It is the US Constitution that gives the judiciary power to our Court system.
Our system of government requires that we all acknowledge the Constitution as the Supreme law of the land. It requires that we all accept laws that have been implemented in accordance to Constitutional requirements and that we live by the, lest we are willing to accept the consequences of not doing so.
We must all accept the Constitutional role of the Courts, and accept its mandates. The Constitution guarantees due process, not outcome, and Cliven Bundy has gotten due process.
If we in fact fall behind Cliven Bundy and make him to be some sort of American patriot, then we are cementing in place the idea that we can ALL disregard the US Constitution, the US Courts, the State and County governments, Court mandates and any sort of authority that doesn't suit us.
It is absurd to argue that what we need to do in order to return ourselves to a nation of laws, is to support an individual who doesn't believe in any law outside his own, and if Cliven Bundy has a right to all the things that he believes he has a right to, even though those things are unsupported by the Constitution, the applicable laws, and the Courts, then Sandra Fluke is equally right in believing that she has a right to the things she believes that she has a right to, because she can't have lesser rights than Cliven Bundy simply because we don't agree with her. As an extension, then we all have a right to everything that we think we all have a right to, since none of us would have to abide by any law, any Court, or any Constitution. Then no Constitution, law or Court would ever be sustainable.
There are a lot of things wrong with our government... a lot of things. But as that stupid old saying goes, two wrongs a right do not make.
Let me tell you what I think is going to happen here.
Cliven Bundy will be broken by the US Government.
They will do it legally if they can, violently if they have no other choice.
The government will do that for the very same reason that George Washington sent out 13,000 militia to put down the Whiskey Rebellion in 1794. In Washington's own words, he could not allow "a small portion of the United States [to] dictate to the whole union". As much as he regretted doing so, Washington understood that in order for the United States to stand, he couldn't allow people to openly disregard duly enacted laws, and disregard the legitimacy of the Federal government.
The people who revolted against the US in Washington's time were every but as passionate about their cause as Bundy and his followers are today, and the United States is no more willing (or able) to allow Bundy's Rebellion to stand today, than it was willing to allow the Whiskey Rebellion to stand then.
Things may very well change in the aftermath of the Bundy Rebellion, but they probably won't change in a way that makes the Federal government weaker, and Cliven Bundy will not win this battle.