Earlier in the week, the Biden bunch released its National Strategy for Suppressing Domestic Dissent Countering Domestic Terrorism. If you are underwhelmed by the release of yet another strategy paper by yet another government agency, join the club. While the strategy is a lot of word salad, there are parts of it that should give concern to anyone who believes in free speech, freedom of expression, and freedom of association.
The document is clearly targeting groups on the right. This should be no surprise to anyone. The Biden bunch came into office claiming that rightwing violent extremists were the greatest domestic terrorism threat to the nation, a claim that can only be reached by ignoring everything that happened everywhere in the United States last summer:
This new strategy is a direct result of the worldview that ignores leftwing riots and mayhem because the people who carry out those attacks are perceived as friends of the current governing claque.
The review was rooted in an expert assessment of the domestic terrorism threat provided by the intelligence and law enforcement communities. An unclassified summary of that assessment was released in March so the public could see the key findings. It found that the two most lethal elements of today’s domestic terrorism threat are (1) racially or ethnically motivated violent extremists who advocate for the superiority of the white race and (2) anti-government or anti-authority violent extremists, such as militia violent extremists.
The Obama administration weaponized the IRS and law enforcement to disrupt activities by conservative groups and Joe is following the playbook. Just a little earlier today I posted on a Christian prayer group being denied non-profit status because they were pro-life and pro-marriage and encouraged Christians to vote according to Biblical principles (see The IRS Says if You Believe in God and the Bible, You Are Working for the GOP). The introduction, alone, tells you where it is going:
Domestic terrorism is not a new threat in the United States. It has, over centuries, taken many American lives and spilled much American blood, especially in communities deliberately and viciously targeted on the basis of hatred and bigotry. After the Civil War, for example, the Ku Klux Klan waged a campaign of terror to intimidate Black voters and their white supporters and deprive them of political power, killing and injuring untold numbers of Americans. The Klan and other white supremacists continued to terrorize Black Americans and other minorities in the decades that followed. In recent years, we have seen a resurgence of this and related threats in one horrific incident after another: the shooting and killing of 23 people a retail store in ElPaso; the vehicular killing of a peaceful protestor in Charlottesville; the shooting and killing of three people at a garlic festival in Gilroy; the arson committed a mosque in Victoria, Texas; the appalling rise in violence and xenophobia directed against Asian Americans; the surge in anti- Semitism; and more.
Domestic terrorist attacks in the United States also have been committed frequently by those opposing our government institutions. In1995, in the largest single act of domestic terrorism in U.S.history, an anti-government violent extremist detonated a bomb at the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, killing 168 people including 19 children- and injuring hundreds of others. In 2016, an anti- authority violent extremist ambushed, shot, and killed five police officers in Dallas. In 2017, a lone gunman wounded four people at a congressional baseball practice. And just months ago, on January 6, 2021, Americans witnessed an unprecedented attack against a core institution of our democracy: the U.S.Congress.
If you read carefully, you’ll note that the violent Antifa demonstrations of last summer are absent. The cold-blooded murder of a right-leaning protester by an Antifa goon is missing. There is no mention of the violent domestic extremists affiliated with radical Islam. The attempt by a progressive Bernie Sanders supporter to decapitate the Congressional GOP is glossed over as though he were a random shooter who just happened to show up at baseball practice. And the motive of the guy who killed 60 or so people in Las Vegas remains unknown.
This strategy will join the resources of
The document also moves the US into the globalist information order visualized by the so-called Christchurch Call to Action to Eliminate Terrorist and Violent Extremist Content Online. For our part, the US government commits to encouraging big tech to crack down on any online conversation they deem to be “extremist.”
Most troubling is we can see the beginnings of a system that makes every government entity a watchdog for “domestic terrorism.”
We will forge a government-wide effort while safeguarding distinctive law enforcement prerogatives, such as those that belong to the Department of Justice, including the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and safeguarding critical patient-provider relationships like those maintained by the Department of Veterans Affairs providers with veterans. Particular investigatory and prosecutorial decisions are for law enforcement alone, unaffected by and insulated from any political influence or bias. At the policy level, this Strategy demands that the broader Federal Government coordinate and collaborate on programmatic aspects of countering domestic terrorism, such as information sharing, training, prevention, and intervention efforts. It thus sets a pathway for a unity of effort at the policy level, while protecting the specific work of law enforcement that must be left wholly to appropriate law enforcement entities, whether Federal, state, local, tribal, or territorial.
We will also build a community to address domestic terrorism that extends not only across the Federal Government but also to critical partners. That includes state, local, tribal, and territorial governments, as well as foreign allies and partners, civil society, the technology sector, academia, and more. Domestic terrorism and the factors that contribute to it pose a challenge best tackled by a set of interlocking communities that can contribute information, expertise, analysis, and more to addressing this multifaceted threat. With the right orientation and partnerships, the Federal Government can energize, connect, and empower those communities — communities whose input was critical to the formulation of this Strategy itself.
The danger of this approach to civil liberties can’t be overstated. It gives the illusion of making the government work more efficiently so “known wolves” don’t slip through the cracks. In reality, money will flow into this network. And as we saw with the SESTA-FOSTA law, if you pour enough money into combatting something, and incentivize results, you can create immense numbers of cases that have almost nothing to do with the intent of the law. In the words of Ronald Reagan, “If you want more of something, subsidize it.” If you want to generate cases of extremists plotting terrorism, just start paying people to find it.
Going along with the deputizing of everybody and their brother to root out extremists, the strategy intends to create a Stasi-like system where family members are encouraged to inform on one another if they suspect they have become “radicalized.” This is from the Background Press Call by Senior Administration Officials on the National Strategy for Countering Domestic Terrorism:
We will work to improve public awareness of federal resources to address concerning or threatening behavior before violence occurs. And on that, I would just note that one of the things we’re talking about is the need to do something in this space, like the “See something” — “If you see something, say something” concept that has been promulgated previously by DHS. This involves creating contexts in which those who are family members or friends or co-workers know that there are pathways and avenues to raise concerns and seek help for those who they have perceived to be radicalizing and potentially radicalizing towards violence.
This is like something out of East Germany and Communist China. Does your father or mother or co-worker believe that the election was stolen? Report them. To who and to what end, we don’t know but given the moist panties created on the left at the thought of “vaccine passports,” it isn’t hard to see a ‘social credit’ system is being created where incorrect beliefs could keep you from traveling by train or airplane or prevent you from getting a decent job. When the whole idea of “red flag” laws, laws that allowed you to report authorities gun owners who you were suspicious of and have their firearms removed, the NRA opposed it because there is no universe in which this will not be used as a vehicle for harassment.
As much fun as it is to laugh our the Nation’s Dementia Popsicle and Frau Professor Doktor Jill, and no matter how much of a joke they are, we can never lose sight of the fact that they have filled the policymaking positions in the government with virulent and dangerous Marxists who really do want to force you out of the nation’s political process.