fabricated compassion for minorities,rnand tcarv pseudoscicnce about endangeredrninsects.rnVcw residents of Mcadville seem to bernmembers of militia groups, and few expressrnmuch svmpathv for or interest inrntliem. One local, o\ ner of a small manufacturingrncompan, told the reporter, “Irndon’t want anything to do with them,rnbut I think I understand their attitude. Ifrn()u ran a small business, vou’d understandrntoo. People are being squeezedrnmore and more all the time. The go-rnernment makes it impossible for smallrnbusiness to sta in business. Pressure justrnbuilds oer time.”rnIf that sentiment is dismissed as thern()iee of a disgruntled capitalist, it’srnmatched b similar thoughts expressedrnb workers. . roofer told the Post reporterrnthat his neighbors who own farmsrnare being driven out of their livelihoods;rn”if a cattail grows, it’s a wet land; if arnbeaver moves, it’s a habitat.” Another,rnasked about the Oklahoma Citv bombing,rnsaid he thought it was “a damnedrngood start”; “if we think we’ll take controlrnof our destinies without some bloodshed,rnthat’s prettv naive thinking on ourrnpart. There’s no peaceful solution to thisrn|)roblem. There arc too manv people livingrnunfaidv off the svstem. Evcrv dav Irngo to work to support people on welfare.rnThe American dream thev sold us wasrnthe American lie, thev ‘re waiting there torntake it all awav.”rn”^ct another Meadvillian said hernbelieved the federal government itselfrnperpetrated the bombing so it could createrna crisis and suspend civil libertiesrn(and given Mr. Clinton’s draconianrn”countcrtcrrorist” legislation, that inter-rn]5retation hardlv seems implausible).rn”I’d |ust as .soon go down the middle ofrnthe road mvsclf,” he said, “but to combatrnradicals like our government—the IRS,rnthe EPA, OSIIA, who come in our eompanvrnlike the Gesta]30, picking on us becausernwe generate money—you’ve got tornhave radicals like militias.”rnThe residents of Mcadville are in factrngenerally a conservative lot, and Republicansrnwin easilv in the area. But whatrnthese citizens have to say about theirrngovernment and its agenda is just a littlernbit different from the harmless nostrumsrnabout “famih values” and balanced budgetsrnthat Mr. Gingrich and Phil Grammrnarc trying to feed the country as thern”Republican Revolution.” What theserncitizens are talking about, even whenrnthev don’t know it, is revolution plainrnand clear. Moreover, while most of theirrngrievances about Washington arernperfectly consistent with conventionalrnconservative complaints about Big Government,rnhigh taxes, and bureaucraticrnintrusions, their explanations of theirrnproblems and their solutions for themrnare rather different too.rnMany- have seen videos or read materialrnabout the “New World Order” and thernUnited Nations conspiracy to seize powerrnand destroy national sovereignty, andrnnot a few listen to shortwave radio programsrnthat advocate hanging politiciansrnwith nvlon rope. In other parts of therncountry, U.N. conspiracy theories, coupledrnwith more violent resistance to taxesrnand regulation, form the framework ofrnan incipient revolutionary consciousness.rnIn some Western states, the Chicago Tribunernreported recently, federal law enforcementrnofficials have contracted whatrnis now known as “Weaver Fever”—a syndromerncharacterized by reluctance torntake armed action against dissidents,rneven when thev ‘re known to have violatedrnthe law. The explanation of “WeaverrnFever” is supposedly that the feds arerntreading more carefully in the wake ofrnthe blundering and perhai^s murderousrnsiege of white separatist Randv Weaver’srncabin in Idaho in 1992, when federalrngoons shot and killed his wife and son.rnThe feds don’t want yet another massacrernbecause it’s bad for P.R., you see,rnand maybe also they’ve Ijegun to learnrnthat if you shoot down innocent citizensrnlong enough, the citizens start shootingrnback.rnWhat is striking about the revolutionaryrnconsciousness in Mcadville and manvrnother locations—in the West and Northwestrnas well as in the Midwest andrnSouth—is tliat its adherents, Republicansrnand conservative though theyrnmay be, arc not conservative movementrngroupies, and they don’t learn their sensernof desperation, their pet conspiracy theories,rnor their flirtations with political violencernfrom conventional or mainstreamrneonservative media and direct-mailrnbarons. These are people whose consciousnessrnis self-generated, bred by therneconomic and cultural annihilation theyrnand their communities are facing, andrnthe very fact that they are drawn tornbizarre conspiracy theories and fantasiesrnof armed resistance suggests that theyrnlack any other plausible explanation forrnthe abyss they face or any political strategyrnfor avoiding collapse within it. Whyrnshouldn’t thev talk conspiracy and revolution,rnwhen all the establishment conservativernmovement offers them is morernchicken doodle about the glories of freerntrade, more unrestricted immigration,rnmore police power for the federalrnleviathan, more tax cuts for Big Business,rnand more contempt for and indifferencernto the Middle Americans whose votesrnelect Republican majorities?rnWhat the Oklahoma Gity bombingrnhas uncovered, then, is the beginnings ofrna clear revolutionary movement of thernright among Middle Americans, a movementrnthat is indeed misinformed as tornthe causes of their dispossession and notrnparticulady adept at understanding whatrnto do about it or how to formulate or accomplishrntheir goals, but displayingrnnonetheless a firm rejection of the federalrnleviathan and a clear perception ofrnwho their enemies are and what the triumphrnof their enemies would mean forrnthem and the way of life they want tornlive. While conspiracy theories aboutrnthe United Nations and other fixtures ofrnpopulist right demonology may be usefulrnin engendering distrust of what thoserndemons symbolize, those theories fail tornidentify the real political and culturalrnforces behind the symbols, and oftenrnthev merely breed a mentality of despair,rnan apprehension that the demons arerninvincible and that the only recourse isrnto burrow deeper and deeper within arnfoxhole of fantasies.rnWhat the radicalism of the populistrnand revolutionary right needs is not onlyrnan alternative to a conservatism that isrnmerely the obverse side of the megastate’srnbad coin but also an alternative tornthe conspiratorial and pseudoparamilitarvrninfantilism that now informs it, arnvvorldview that can more accuratelyrnidentify and analyze the real enemies ofrnMiddle America who tremble in their salonsrnover the march of an angry peoplernthey despise, and a strategy that can expressrnthe political goals that a MiddlernAmerican movement should pursue, arnpolitical means for winning those goals,rnand an ideological vehicle that capturesrnthe real grievances of a dispossessed andrnexploited populace and mobilizes theirrnanger for serious revolutionary victory.rnThere is no reason those needs cannot bernmet, and those on the right who understandrnhow to meet them need to startrndriving the vehicles of the Middle Americanrnrevolution low, befo.. Mr. Clinton’srnlittle expe it in smears and repressionrnpushes thei ” Hie road.rnAUGUST. -igs/grnrnrn