far right 'patriots'

Frank Rich quotes a Republican Representative in congress rationalizing the suicide attack on the IRS building in Texas:

Representative Steve King, Republican of Iowa, even rationalized Stack’s crime. “It’s sad the incident in Texas happened,” he said, “but by the same token, it’s an agency that is unnecessary. And when the day comes when that is over and we abolish the I.R.S., it’s going to be a happy day for America.” No one in King’s caucus condemned these remarks.

Besides justifying a terrorist act, what I see in such sentiments is an argument against government per se -- an odd stance for an elected official. Such people fantasize that 'America' could exist as a nation without a government. For without the IRS, there would be no taxes -- and without taxes, where would there be money for government, including the beloved military bureaucracy, the Pentagon?

The Right's anti-tax diatribe reveals a selfish attack on government itself, a wish for return to a (non-existent) Hobbitt-land of farmers and herders shut up in their little houses, with no connection to one another. There is no America there. From the start, 'America' was defined as a political entity. Without a government, there would be no America. An odd position for so-called 'patriots.'

Attacks on taxation in general are really attacks on participation in broad political units -- states -- and are calls for a selfish, do-it-yourself return to the woods.