From the 2017 Backcountry Hunters and Anglers Rendezvous, Randy shares the mic with Greg Blascovich, Founder of the non-profit organization KeepItPublic.org, and Board Member Randall Williams.  Each having a PhD in relevant topics of history and/or politics, Greg and Randall provide perspective of how public lands came to be and how politics formed America’s interest in public lands.  Topics covered include the mission of KeepItPublic, skipping college graduation to go fishing, image of hunters over historical time, public lands as an issue to align unaligned groups, animated video how America got its Public Land, importance of 19th Century politicians to hunting and public lands, excerpts from “Hunting and the American Imagination,” party-ism v. conservation, inform/educate/advocate, colonists’ rejection of European hunting, tribalism as a natural human element, Americans as centrists v. their elected officials as partisans, did hunters really start the public land movement, voters as apologists, factors that influenced America’s view of hunters, clean water as an example of political dichotomy, binary view of the world, political communications labs, abundance thinkers v. scarcity thinkers, public lands as an apolitical issue, history of how Americans form opinions on topics, challenge of keeping a non-profit with one focus and resisting engagement of other topics, the mission of KeepItPublic being to oppose the sale/transfer/degradation of America’s Public Lands.  Make a donation at KeepItPublic.org.  #KeepItPublic

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