Let’s start with the obvious: Michigan is giving militias a bad name.

Whether by a plot to bomb a federal building in Oklahoma City or a plot to kidnap a duly elected governor, the Great Lakes State has given militias an awful name. A repugnant name. A name they don’t deserve. It was a militia, after all, that in 1775 took up arms at Lexington and Concord and took on the world’s most powerful army.

As for the bizarre events that came to light yesterday in Michigan, here’s what we know: Federal agents thwarted a plot to violently overthrow the state’s government as well as kidnap or otherwise harm its governor, Democrat Gretchen Whitmer. As The Detroit News reports, “The alleged plot mainly involved six conspirators unhappy in part about Whitmer’s coronavirus restrictions, calling her a ‘tyrant.’ They wanted to create a ‘self-sufficient’ society free from what they called unconstitutional state governments and discussed plans to storm the Capitol and take hostages, according to FBI documents filed in court. Organizers allegedly met starting in June, including at a Second Amendment rally in [the state capital of] Lansing and in a Grand Rapids shop basement accessed through a secret door hidden under a rug.”

In addition to targeting the governor, the suspects, who number 13 in all, are also accused of plotting against law enforcement generally. As Fox News reports, “The suspects, now under arrest, are accused of calling on the groups’ members to identify the homes of law enforcement officers in order to target them [and] making threats of violence to instigate a civil war leading to societal collapse.”

Wait. These guys wanted to target cops, start a civil war, and cause societal collapse? That sounds an awful lot like the modus operandi of antifa, a group of violent far-left anarchists we’ve had our eyes on for years.

The knee-jerk, anti-Republican media narrative is already out there, of course, but at least one of the suspects is actually a Trump-hating anarchist. “You know Trump is not your friend, dude,” said Brandon Caserta, with an anarchist flag as a backdrop. “And it amazes me that people actually, like, believe that, when he’s shown over and over and over again that he’s a tyrant. Every single person that works for government is your enemy, dude.”

Caserta’s YouTube account has been terminated, but his videos were anything but those of a law-and-order Trump supporter. “They are oppressing you for a paycheck,” he said in one video. “If you’re still supporting law enforcement, you are supporting the people who are enforcing slavery on everyone else.” In another, he said, “The Constitution is illegitimate.” In still another: “Authority doesn’t exist, dude, and, like, the law doesn’t exist.”

Dude. Where are those hard-working Pulitzer Prize winners at The New York Times and The Washington Post when we need ‘em?

To no one’s surprise, Democrats and their media brethren were lightning quick to make political hay, however dishonestly and despicably. Almost as soon as the story broke, Whitmer took to the airwaves to blame Donald Trump and, ostensibly, the 63 million Americans who voted for him. “You know, the fact [is] that after a plot to kidnap and to kill me,” she complained to CNN’s Erin Burnett, “this is what they come out with. They start attacking me, as opposed to what good, decent people would do [which] is to check in and say, 'Are you OK?’ — which is what Joe Biden did. I think that tells you everything that’s at stake in this election. It tells you everything you need to know about the character of the two people on this ballot that we have to choose from in a few weeks.”

In short: You can join me and vote for Gentleman Joe Biden, or you can vote for the Orange Guy who wants me dead.

President Trump, of course, is a counterpuncher. And to no one’s surprise, he did just that: “Governor Whitmer of Michigan has done a terrible job,” he tweeted. “She locked down her state for everyone, except her husband’s boating activities. The Federal Government provided tremendous help to the Great People of Michigan. My Justice Department and Federal Law Enforcement announced today that they foiled a dangerous plot against the Governor of Michigan. Rather than say thank you, she calls me a White Supremacist — while Biden and Democrats refuse to condemn Antifa, Anarchists, Looters and Mobs that burn down Democrat run cities. I do not tolerate ANY extreme violence. Defending ALL Americans, even those who oppose and attack me, is what I will always do as your President!”