THE REPORTS this week seem eerily familiar: a little town in Michigan, a small group of "Christian" activists brandishing automatic weapons and explosives and dressed in self-assembled military fatigues, condemning the evils of government authority and planning their role in an apocalyptic war on the United States that would anticipate the End of Days.

There were several private "militia" groups, secular and religious, in Michigan in the mid-1990s, too. Timothy McVeigh attended at least one event sponsored by one of these groups, although he was not a member. In 1995, McVeigh blew up the federal building in Oklahoma City, killing 168 people - a monstrous crime for which he properly was executed.

It's appropriate that federal and state prosecutors and investigators have responded assertively to disturbing information about the Hutaree, a group in Lenawee County that, according to a federal indictment, planned to kill a police officer and then attack his or her funeral. Hutaree members believed the resulting carnage would win them sympathy and support, the indictment says, enabling them to wage an epic national war that would ally them with Jesus against "the anti-Christ."

Nine members of the group are under arrest. Other militia groups in Michigan have been quick to distance themselves from the Hutaree, insisting their own activities are legal. But suggestions that the Hutaree are an aberration, a bunch of cultists who wanted to blow off steam but went a little too far, are off the mark.

The Southern Poverty Law Center, which tracks the activities of extremist groups across the political spectrum, concludes that the numbers of paramilitary militias and self-described "patriot" groups have exploded since Barack Obama's election in 2008.

The presence of an African-American president in the White House, coupled with absurd but persistent notions that Mr. Obama 1) is not an American, 2) is a Muslim, and 3) wants to confiscate weapons in private hands have proved effective recruiting tools, analysts say. The persistent recession and growing diversity of the American population have led to increasingly strident calls to "take our country back."

The Hutaree's rhetoric, while extremist, is not that far beyond the violent hate speech, often with a quasi-religious tinge, that characterizes much of what passes for conventional political rhetoric these days.

When an ostensibly responsible congressional leader describes his opposition to health-care reform legislation by describing its outcome as "Armageddon," he's speaking the Hutaree's language.

We all need to remember what it was like to disagree with each other, and dissent against our government, without demonizing each other or the government. We need to turn the volume down on the toxic rhetoric - voluntarily, never by government fiat - however righteous we consider our cause and however evil we regard our adversaries.

If not, sooner or later, people are going to get hurt.

First Published March 31, 2010, 8:52 a.m.