Losing the Center: The Decline of American Liberalism, 1968–1992

9. Leave Us Alone: Morris Udall, the Sagebrush Rebellion, and the Reagan Revolution

9 Leave Us Alone Morris Udall, the Sagebrush Rebellion, and the Reagan Revolution Apparently, Democrats hated baseball—so much so that in nevada, where the federal government owned 87 percent of all the land, the townsfolk of tiny Alamo had to petition Washington just to construct a Little League baseball field.1 Located in the sparsely populated Lincoln County, Alamo was also situated near Area 51. the security needs of the experimental military airfield meant that the federal government controlled 98 percent of the county’s land, a reality causing bureaucratic headaches. indeed, two and a half years after Alamonians asked for the building permit, it literally took an act of Congress before Little Leaguers could play ball.2 in the face of such bureaucratic nightmares, conservatives launched the 1979–1980 “sagebrush rebellion.” Calling for the transfer of federal lands back to the states, the sagebrush rebels exploited westerners’ growing ambivalence toward the federal government by offering a succinct program: leave us alone. Campaigning for the presidency in 1980, ronald reagan promised a new relationship between the federal government and western states. While reagan never fully delivered on this pledge, the sagebrush rebellion and reagan’s campaign effectively rendered the West a conservative stronghold. Although leading sagebrush rebels, such as republican senators orrin hatch (Utah), Alan simpson (Wyoming), and Pete Domenici (new Mexico), saw their movement as a novel political undertaking, it was the latest installment of a continuing melodrama pitting western states against the federal government over control of the region’s land. in this particular episode, the 1964 Wilderness Act sparked a political uprising.3 A watershed in federal land management legislation, the Wilderness Act revealed a shift from conservationist to preservationist policies. since the 176 Losing the Center Progressive era, conservationists had emphasized the planned use of natural resources. in contrast, preservationists valued the aesthetic and ecological value of wilderness areas. the preservationist-inspired legislation created a national Wilderness Preservation system that banned farming, logging, grazing, mining, road building, and motorized vehicles in wilderness areas. sixteen years after its enactment, conservatives mounted a counterattack. Morris Udall and the Alaska Lands Act swimming against the political stream of the sagebrush rebellion was Arizona ’s Democratic congressman Morris Udall, a preservationist. tall, lanky, and athletic, the six-foot, five-inch Udall had gained national renown for his humor, presidential campaign, and legislative prowess. Chairman of the house interior Committee during the Carter administration, he was the key figure in the passage of the 1980 Alaska Lands Act. A logical extension of the Wilderness Act, the legislation doubled the size of the national park system and tripled the acreage of the national wilderness system; it also prompted the sagebrush rebellion. A major player in every significant battle over environmental legislaMorris Udall at the Capitol (courtesy University of Arizona Libraries) Leave Us Alone 177 tion from the mid-1960s through the 1980s, Udall symbolizes liberalism’s evolving environmental policy. Prior to the 1960s, liberals promoted western economic development via federal projects that ranged from dams and roads to a variety of water projects, literally building the region’s infrastructure . By the 1970s, new Politics liberals turned against development in favor of wilderness preservation. once Democrats ceased allying themselves with westerners in developing infrastructure and resources, conservatives took the region. though Udall’s impressive record of green legislation has rightly earned him accolades, for conservatives the Alaska Lands Act was the culmination of a century’s worth of heavy-handed federal domination and typified the preservationists’ agenda. indeed, it was opposed by every member of Alaska ’s congressional delegation, raised the ire of most western politicians, and fueled the sagebrush rebellion. Conservationism and Preservationism During the 1960s and 1970s, new Politics liberals like Udall had become interested in environmental issues. Concerned about humanity’s harmful impact on ecosystems, they opted for preservationism, which favored the permanent protection of wilderness as a partial solution to the burgeoning issues of pollution and ecological imbalance. though henry David thoreau, Lewis Mumford, and Aldo Leopold had popularized environmental sentiments, rachel Carson catalyzed a movement . her 1962 best seller Silent Spring communicated scientific concerns about humanity’s ecological impact to the informed public. A marine biologist by trade, the author claimed that insecticides and other pollutants threatened both the natural and the human environments.4 With this impetus, an educated, middle-class constituency rallied to the environmentalist banner. in response to this groundswell, throughout the...