The rural, mainly white, United States is all too familiar with me. I grew up in northern Michigan and I couldn't be more proud of my hometown of Traverse City, but I've begun to notice just how backwards it can be sometimes now that I've moved to the (more liberal) city of Detroit. Although it is arguably not a giant cultural shift to go from Traverse City to the suburbs of Detroit, there is a much larger diversity of people and ideas near the city. The point is that I grew up around a lot of white folks who were middle to lower class and who pretty much lived in rural areas for a majority of their lives. Growing up around those parts normalized a lot of weird things, mainly an affinity for guns, a distrust in the government/authority, and giant blinders to troubles facing almost every single minority (except class minorities, of course).

Needless to say then, I know a couple 'patriots'.

Those things that are normalized to me seem to be the tenets of the so called 'Patriot Movement'.

The Patriot Movement

Every country has its over-the-top nationalists who have a romanticized view of what the nation used to be and who are motivated enough to incite violence. The latest group in the United States is the Patriots. The Patriots are a collection of largely white folks who live in rural areas and align politically as conservative and independent who advocate for small governments and organizing militias in order to defend themselves against the perceived threat of government over-reach. They are classified as an extremest right-wing organization and they have been around since the late '50s, but peaked in popularity in 1996. Recently, the Patriot Movement has seen a revival coinciding with the election of Barack Obama.

There are strands of them who are white-supremacists, anti-semites, and islamophobes. Most, if not all, Patriots are in some way Christian and there is a propensity for these Christian Patriots to believe sincerely in the impending apocalypse that was outlined in the Bible. Many view the Civil Rights in general and especially the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to be a major step backwards and an encroachment by the government on citizen's lives. Finally, there is a strong belief in various conspiracy theories such as the moon landing being a hoax, the Kennedy assassination and 9/11 attacks being orchestrated, at least in part, by the federal government, and that the United Nations plotting to create a New World Order.

If you think this is a fringe group, you're wrong. Currently there are 998 groups spread throughout the US - 276 of which are militia groups. In Michigan alone there are 32 groups. The Patriots are exactly the group of people that Donald Trump is tapping into as fuel and support for his candidacy.

One Step Forward, Two Giant Steps Back

Patriots didn't just wake up one day hating the government, of course. They were provoked. The Patriot Movement's origins can be traced back to two main events happening only one year apart where the government really messed up: The Ruby Ridge Siege of 1992 and the Waco Siege of 1993. Although all of the circumstances surrounding each event are incredibly interesting they take a lot to explain. The gist of them both is that the government went too far in taking action against citizens that the government perceived as threats. In the case of the the Ruby Ridge Siege, the government had unjust Rules of Engagement for the Weaver family resulting in the death of White-Supremacist Randy Weaver's son Sammy, wife Vicki (who was killed holding her 10 month old daughter by a sniper), and dog Striker. In the Waco Siege, a raid on the Waco compound that housed Branch Davidians resulted in a gun fight that killed four government agents and six Branch Davidians. The raid failed resulting in a 51 day standoff that ended with tear gas and a fire in the compound that killed an additional 80 Branch Davidians. The Branch Davidians believed in an impending apocalypse. Both incidents were caused by largely the same people in the government offices and began with the government investigating relatively minor offenses.

Fast-forward two years later to the second anniversary of the Waco Siege fire where the self-proclaimed Patriots and US Militia Movement Sympathizers, Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols, bomb the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in downtown Oklahoma City. The detonation of a truck packed with explosives killed 168 people - including 19 small children, injured 680+ people, damaged 324 buildings, and burned 86 cars. Timothy was sentenced to death in 2001 by lethal injection, and Terry was sentenced to life in prison in 2004.

The last major recent events to note are the Bundy Standoff and the Occupation of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge. Both of which have ties to the Patriot movement.

There is a very rich history to the Patriot movement which is detailed excruciatingly by the Southern Poverty Law Center and is mainly filled with Patriots conspiring to blow up government buildings, being found with a lot of explosives and guns, killing or threatening to kill government officials, a burning of a black congregation in Springfield, Massachusetts, evading taxes, and rallying or calling to rally around anti-government ideas. With that said, many Patriots, like B.J. Soper are very civil and want to work through legal means to accomplish their goals.

Donald Trump, the Election, and why I'm afraid

Here is where I become much less neutral (more so than I was already). My reservations about the character of Trump aside, Patriots - among other groups like the KKK - overwhelmingly support Donald Trump. Donald Trump resonates with the Patriots, he speaks to their rhetoric. My fear is not about what Trump will do in office, but rather who he enables once he is in office.

I think that the Patriots have, at their core, valid concerns. However, the way they go about trying to convey and work to quell their concerns is deeply morally and legally troubling. Although I can understand why groups like the Patriots or even ISIS are so upset and motivated, understanding is obviously not agreement. Personally, unless the Patriots begin to rethink how they try to motivate change, I will consider them American-Made Terrorists. Perhaps if they learned from more successful movements like the ones they despise, they would make more strides in accomplishing their goals. However, I refuse to not call the Patriots terrorists, when people are so quick to label people of color or of non-christian faith as terrorists when they kill even one person - whereas 168 people have been killed in the Oklahoma City Bombing alone. Your color or faith do not exempt you from being a terrorist and it certainly doesn't make you patriotic. If the Patriots are the epitome of patriotism, I would rather live elsewhere. Thankfully, that is not the case.

Stay ever vigilant my friends.