The occupation of Oregon’s Malheur National Wildlife Refuge by “Patriot” anti-government extremists, now well into its third week, has made their unique lawless ideology a focus of both speculation and analysis. Unlike the genuine complaints of mainstream conservatives of good will or even most populist voters, the anti-government occupiers are seeking something radically different than redress through ballot boxes and the judiciary, and that is a difference of definition, not degree.

South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley articulated the genuine disappointment of many in her Republican response following the president’s State of the Union address, noting, “a frustration with a government that has grown day after day, year after year, yet doesn’t serve us any better.” For these extremists, however, it is not government’s unwieldy size, frustrating excess, or trajectory; rather its illegitimacy and tyranny that justifies a takeover by force of arms under their insurrectionist view of the Second Amendment.