A couple years back there was another Michigan group that got arrested for plotting to kill a police officer to start a civil war too.  Which also was marketed as right wing back then, but now seems more likely they were anarchists or communists.    I think extremists are so enraptured by their political viewpoint that they see the world as one push away from revolution.  Because their life is at a junction where they only see two choices, revolution or decay.  When your personal life is one event from watching all the dominos fall down, you view society the same way.