Hating the government isn't patriotism

Editorial board, The Republic
5:59 p.m. MST May 23, 2016

... Arizona lawmakers – including GOP candidate for Senate Kelli Ward – made a big show of traveling to Nevada in 2014 to lend moral support for rancher Cliven Bundy, who had violated the federal agreement that allowed him to ranch on public land. He staged an armed standoff with federal officers ...

Extremists coalesce around arguments that our government is so divorced from the Constitution that they must arm themselves for protection. But in the case of Bundy and other armed reactionaries, their rage is against laws meant to protect the public resources that belong to everyone ...

“The tea party built little bridges between the fringe and the mainstream,” J.J. MacNab, a George Washington University researcher into extremism told the Washington Post. “With Trump, it’s an 18-lane superhighway. He’s literally telling them they’re right” ...

Getting involved in the political process of organizing, campaigning and honest debate is a lot harder than stockpiling arms and spinning paranoid conspiracy theories ...

http://www.azcentral.com/story/opinion/editorial/2016/05/23/patriot-movement-government/84817190/