The long-awaited trial for Ammon Bundy, Ryan Bundy, and six other militants who led the 40-day armed occupation of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge is beginning in Oregon.

During the trial, we expect that the Bundy family and their outlandish opinions on American democracy will be on full display. What shouldn’t get lost in the shuffle is that Ammon Bundy, Ryan Bundy and their father Cliven have become primary players in a floundering political effort to seize public lands owned by all Americans.

As the trial unfolds over the coming weeks, it’s important to remember that the Bundy family is motivated by an ideology based on a fundamental misunderstanding of American government and the Constitution.

As Cliven Bundy explained in 2014, “I don’t recognize the United States government as even existing.” His son, Ammon, told a reporter, “we’re out here because the people have been abused long enough, really. Their lands and their resources have been taken from them.”

Of course, the U.S. government does exist and there is a long, well-documented history of public lands in the United States, and a strong legal foundation for their existence. In 1840 the Supreme Court ruled that the U.S. government’s authority over public lands was “without limitation.” Upon entering the Union, nearly every Western state agreed to “Enabling Acts,” which state that the right and title to U.S. public lands would remain with all Americans.

Furthermore, the Bundys are supported by elected officials who share their goals to close access to public lands. There has been a political effort in recent years – led by Utah State Rep. Ken Ivory – to force the U.S. government to dispose of public lands into state and private hands. Rep. Ivory also founded the American Lands Council, which advocates on behalf of his political agenda. Ivory has called his effort “the Second Great Revolution,” one that’s “being fought with delta smelt. It’s being fought with sage grouse….”

The Bundys are the most prominent foot soldiers in Ivory’s “revolution,” but the Utah state representative has also built inroads with anti-government groups. Rep. Ivory has, for example, met with groups like Montana’s Sanders Natural Resources Council that has direct links to the Militia of Montana.

Rep. Ivory has also gained traction with conservative Republicans who are pushing the land seizure agenda. The 2016 Republican Party Platform calls for disposing of U.S. public lands. And In July, U.S. Reps. Paul Gosar of Arizona, Scott Tipton of Colorado, Mark Amodei of Nevada, and others, introduced the HEARD Act, with the aim of privatizing hundreds of thousands of acres of American public lands.

While Ivory pushes the Bundy agenda with legislators and extremist groups, anti-public lands activists continue to endanger public employees who are just doing their jobs. The Bundy occupations are only the most prominent of multiple incidents where militants armed with assault rifles threatened land managers. In April 2015, militants occupied the Sugar Pine Mine in Oregon. Four months later, militia groups occupied Montana’s White Hope Mine. More recently, the leader of a citizen militia group in Utah made news for trying to detonate a bomb in a remote BLM cabin. That suspect, William Keebler, had previously spent time with LaVoy Finicum prior to the Oregon occupation.

As the trial unfolds, it’s important to remember that the Bundys and the elected officials promoting the Bundy agenda do not speak for the large majority of Westerners. Poll after poll shows that Westerners don’t want to see public lands disposed of. According to public opinion research conducted earlier this year, a strong majority of Westerners (60 percent) are against selling public lands to reduce the budget deficit; only 26 percent of Westerners are in favor of land sales.

With public opinion strongly opposed to the land seizure agenda, legislatures across the West are rejecting political attempts to undermine public lands. This is all good news: the sooner we move beyond misguided policy proposals on public lands, the sooner we can get to work developing public lands policy that protects land, water, and resources, while providing an economic engine to the West.