This Trump Executive Action Is One of the Most Alarming We’ve Seen So Far
Take a close look at the language buried within those sentences. It’s calling on law enforcement to go after those who are trying to “change or direct policy”—something any political organization does. Which policies? The document makes this clear as well. The “common threads” of these “domestic terrorist” groups “include anti-Americanism, anti-capitalism, and anti-Christianity,” as well as “extremism on migration, race, and gender, and hostility towards those who hold traditional American views on family, religion, and morality.”
The document calls for “a National Joint Terrorism Task Force” and “local offices” (“JTTFs”) to “investigate and disrupt networks, entities and organizations” that “foment” these ideas “before they result in violent political acts.”
Read literally (and why shouldn’t it be?), this is a national security memorandum—signed by the president of the United States—that essentially outlaws what George Orwell called, in a famous work of speculative fiction, “thought crimes.”
And the targeting will start with MAGA people. You need a certain threshold of people and the right flashpoint to have a revolution. Because DoJ acting against someone “on the right” will incite fewer people to take up arms, it’s almost an anti-flashpoint and one step in normalizing this kind of targeting.
I mean, James Comey already. Plenty of people who aren’t fascists don’t like Comey, some of them are definitely going to be less enraged by his indictment, even if the indictment is total fascist bullshit.
Then they’ll haul in some loose cannon MAGA chode who’s gone and “shown hostility to traditional American values” and hold them up as an example of how they’re totally fair, and a bunch of left-leaning people are going to be okay with that, some of them will even cheer it on.
After that, then we’ll see the Republican party get purged of elected officials who aren’t “loyal” enough, definitely starting with people who are kind of universally hated. (Ted Cruz has been practicing fleeing to Mexico.) The seat will be filled in a “special election” that will certainly require heavy federal oversight to make absolutely sure it’s free and fair. Wink, wink.
If they feel they can expand control of the House, we’ll have midterm elections. If not, we won’t. Either way, it’ll be after that point that the opposition purge will pick up speed.
Drip. Drip. Drip.