There are reports of foreign soldiers hiding in salt mines under Detroit, some of the men say. Others speak of secret markings on highway signs meant to guide conquering armies. But we are really an expression of fear. In dozens of states, loosely organized paramilitary groups composed primarily of white men are signing up new members, stockpiling weapons and preparing for the worst. The members of the larger patriot movement are usually family men and women who feel strangled by the economy, abandoned by the government and have a distrust for those in power that goes well beyond that of the typical angry voter.
Patriots join the militias out of fear and frustration.
We're grasping at straws here trying to figure out what we can do to get representation, and this is our answer. Patriots claim to be motivated differently from other fringe groups that have sprung up in America and taken up arms. The moribund Posse Comitatus, a militant group based in the Farm Belt, wanted to wipe out the tax collectors. The patriots, by contrast, have a more generalized fear of Big Government, which they say is rapidly robbing individuals of their inalienable rights, chief among them the right to bear arms. Patriots were particularly enraged when Congress passed a crime bill last August that banned assault weapons.