Americans in the 1990s witnessed the advent of political terrorism on U.S. shores. Previously, terrorist bombings had been confined to foreign soil. What makes the recent American terrorism so insidious is that it was perpetrated by a diverse set of extremists--ranging from suspected Unabomber Ted Kaczynski to Oklahoma City bombing suspect Timothy McVeigh to the Islamic militants convicted in the World Trade Center bombing. A common thread in this wave of domestic terrorism is contempt for the U.S. government.
Montana has emerged as a hotbed of extremist ideology. The state is home to Ted Kaczynski, the Freemen, and the Militia of Montana, known as the "Mother of all militias." But Montana's dubious distinction as the "Paraguay of the United States" reflects the woes that a handful of other Western states are experiencing. Montana is undergoing gentrification that is creating hardship for long-term, less affluent residents. As one Montana native describes the invading rich, "They come bearing money, buy up prime real estate and decorate the hills with trophy houses" (Kittredge, 1996, p. 43). In a state where good blue-collar jobs are increasingly hard to come by, economically disadvantaged Montanans must settle for low-paying tourist jobs (considered the "servant trade"), inflated land values, and an erosion of established social bonds. Many towns, such as Lincoln (near Ted Kaczynski's home), have gone bankrupt in the process. Radical locals bent on revenge for deteriorating economic conditions turn to guns and bombs. Add to this mindset the live-and-let-live attitude that characterizes sparsely populated states like Montana, and the result is right-wing terrorism.
Estimates of the ranks of potentially violent militia organizations in the United States vary. The Center for Democratic Renewal estimates 100,000 members of paramilitary organizations in America, dispersed throughout about 30 states ("Epidemic," 1995, p....