THE BODYBAGGERS

The teabag world has a marked undercurrent of lawlessness. You can hear it in the words of hatred toward government and of scorn for elected officials. You can see it in the boisterous overthrow of town hall meetings. You can infer it from the talk of revolution and the repeated comparisons, however loopy, with 1776.

The most extreme teabaggers are beginning to resort to violence. So far they have been doing it individually, like the individualists they are. But that is likely to change before long.

There was the ancient racist ideologue who killed a guard at the Capitol and was fatally wounded. Those who knew him said he had gotten angrier and angrier recently. Well, that is in the air.

Then there was the Austin, Texas fellow who stated, "Nothing changes without a body count." He burned his house with his family in it (they got out), then slammed his plane into a building that had a notable IRS presence. Limbaugh tried to spin this man as a lefty because he hated Dubya, but teabaggers have no use for establishment Republicans. And while some points in the manifesto he bequeathed us were unique to himself, such as his quarrel with the Catholic church, most were pure teabag/anarchist. For sure no one on the left would attack the IRS, which is the great institutional hope for redistributing the nation's wealth.

Most recently there was the guy who tried to shoot it out at the Pentagon. The righties are saying he was a registered Dem; that doesn't settle anything, because baggers are quirky. He was big on the freedom to do dope, but that fits with the libertarian element in bagger thought. Look at the statement that he left behind and you'll see that most of it was teabaggery: the conspiracy theory, the inflamed patriotism, the fury over our supposed loss of freedom.

There are also the resurgent militias and militant racist groups, possibly training in a woods near you. What are they saying? That the country isn't white enough anymore, that the government is illegitimate, that it's time for armed revolt. Is someone going to try to tell us that they are really liberals, too?

There is a difference in degree, not in kind, between the teabaggers and these bodybaggers. All exhibit the same rage, the same rejection of reasonableness, the same dislike of institutions, the same belief that citizens must rise up and act against their own government.

It is eye-opening to realize that you can go all through Canada and England and Europe and not find anything equivalent to this teabag/bodybag notion that you are free only when you secede from society, stockpile personal arms, and beggar your neighbors. In all these places you find a high degree of personal liberty and good social services, without the neurotic supposition that people must choose between those. What we are suffering from is a homegrown affliction, not something universally human or inevitable.

If you want to drive right-wingers buggy, just tell them the truth: that we are all in the same boat and that nothing is going to win them a special deal, a separate peace.

In recent weeks something called the coffee party movement has started up. It is moderate. It sounds sane. It is saying that the government is not our enemy but is our instrument for claiming and shaping our country. It is saying that we should take lawful, intelligent civic action, not make it impossible for citizens to do so. And it seems to be gaining adherents fast.

Something outside the government has to counter the teabag and bodybag mentality. Could it be that that something has now appeared, and that people will start hearing it out? Fingers crossed!