I think there has been an undercurrent of anti-government "rebels" for decades,

[no_hypocrisy]

perhaps since the Civil War.

In the mid-Eighties, I shared a big old house that was converted into a rooming house. (Yes, they existed even then.)

One family from Idaho was living in the "apartment" section of the Victorian house. The husband/father had his younger brother from Idaho join their family in Suffern, NY (Rockland County). They guys were in their early 30s. On Fridays and Sundays, they liked to go to bars. Nothing unusual about that, except they went there not primarily to drink, get drunk, etc. They wanted to get into fist-fights with locals (read, "Yankees&quot and hopefully beat them (figuratively and literally). They would actually get more excited by the minute as they got ready to go out. They were re-hashing the Civil War, one drunk at a time.

They also were very anti-government, even though Reagan was in the WH at the time. I'd say they were either Libertarian or outright anarchists. (I don't know; we only lived together for about four months.)

I didn't know that Idaho was part of the Confederacy. (I know it wasn't but apparently there has been a migration.)

[kwolf68]

1. Absolutely

It got really big in the 1990s and the events at Waco and Ruby Ridge really fueled the movement. There are ideological underpinnings to the movement in terms of limited government and free market economics, but the real fuel is their hatred for societal progress, blacks getting equal justice, gay rights, willingly accepting immigrants of all persuasions onto our shores. These people represent what the militias abhor, a changing of America, maybe not wholesale change, but certainly an evolution of American culture. This change inevitably lead to the election, for the first time, a black man as President of our nation. That spilled even more fuel on the fire and Trump is there to fan the flames. These people can play around on their farms and shoot up bottles, but they are one call from being American Terrorists and trust me we have not seen the last of them. Their kind of venom and rage is not easily terminated.

[Arne]

2. Every NY loudmouth tough guy I knew back then went to certain places to start a bar fight.

On Monday the story of how many chairs they smashed and punches they threw
would entertain the office coffee machine group.

[Thomas Hurt]

3. Patriot movement, Birch Society, "militias", anti-tax protesters, sovereigns...

constitutionalists, minutemen groups, KKK, neonazis, aryan brotherhood, Army of God, reconstructionists, dominionists and so on.

All right wing movements or organizations. Of course the KKK is the oldest conservative christian terrorist organization in this country's history. Birchers since the 50s. Patriot Movement and militias during the 80s and 90s.

[Wellstone ruled]

4. No sh*t!

This started at the tail end of Truman's Administration with the likes of Joe McCarthy,and Richard Nixon later on.

The Sedition Wannabe's have walked amoung us for 70+years. Look no further than the Spawn of Fred Koch,JP Morgan and People disguised as so called Religious Leaders. All they needed was a willing Vessel to move their Ideals and they found it in Diaper Don.