by Thaddeus G. McCotter
Though alarming and depressing, we can no longer avoid recognizing that America’s greatest domestic threat is from pro-government extremists.
We rue that pro-government extremists caused immense destruction during their less-than-“peaceful protests” in 2020; and we witness the continuing damage caused by their neurotic, totalitarian response to a plethora of problems, such as the COVID-19 pandemic..
Indeed, what makes the pro-government extremists so dangerous is their far greater numbers than their anti-government extremist counterparts. Their noxious ideology that the citizen is subordinate to the omnipotent state is incessantly “normalized” and propagandized by their corporate media comrades.
Worse, their pro-government extremism is being indoctrinated throughout American public and private institutions, including K-12 education, higher education, and the military. In fact, pro-government extremists have infiltrated the American government, and are weaponizing the powers of the state to wage war on dissenting citizens’ liberty and livelihoods.
In a nation that constitutionally recognizes and respects an individual citizen’s God-given rights, including free speech and the power to peaceably assemble to petition the government for the redress of grievances, only the infiltration of the Department of Homeland Security by pro-government extremists could explain Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas’ February 7 National Terrorism Advisory System Bulletin, which included the following “Summary of Terrorism Threat to the U.S. Homeland”:
The United States remains in a heightened threat environment fueled by several factors, including an online environment filled with false or misleading narratives and conspiracy theories, and other forms of mis- dis- and mal-information (MDM) introduced and/or amplified by foreign and domestic threat actors. These threat actors seek to exacerbate societal friction to sow discord and undermine public trust in government institutions to encourage unrest, which could potentially inspire acts of violence . . . While the conditions underlying the heightened threat landscape have not significantly changed over the last year, the convergence of the following factors has increased the volatility, unpredictability, and complexity of the threat environment: (1) the proliferation of false or misleading narratives, which sow discord or undermine public trust in U.S. government institutions.
What constitutes these “key factors” driving the department’s assessment of a “current heightened threat environment”?
For example, there is widespread online proliferation of false or misleading narratives regarding unsubstantiated widespread election fraud and COVID-19. Grievances associated with these themes inspired violent extremist attacks during 2021. [And] malign foreign powers have and continue to amplify these false or misleading narratives in efforts to damage the United States.
Upon a cursory reading, one can be forgiven for thinking Mayorkas’ terrorist threat summary is describing the Left’s subversive, foreigner-abetted Russiagate disinformation campaign against the Trump Administration. But no, these pro-government extremists in the executive branch are bent upon criminalizing dissent and quashing constitutional rights—which constitute a direct “threat” to their abuses of power, including their continued weaponization of the federal government against dissenters.
Responding to the DHS threat assessment, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) said: “President Biden believes the greatest threat to the homeland is any American using their First Amendment right to question the Government. State-sponsored threats against free speech are un-American. [Secretary] Mayorkas should rescind this intimidation tactic immediately.”
McCarthy might have added that this pro-government extremist-crafted DHS threat assessment is deeply ironic, as it is itself contributing to “an online environment filled with false or misleading narratives and conspiracy theories, and other forms of mis- dis- and mal-information (MDM)” that will be “introduced and/or amplified by foreign and domestic threat actors.”
Notwithstanding this quibble, McCarthy is correct. Given his recognition of the threat posed by pro-government extremists, we should expect him to vow to impeach Mayorkas and commence a clean sweep of the swamp’s pro-government extremists.
For while a handful of anti-government extremists scheming in a hovel in the middle of nowhere is dangerous; a plethora of pro-government extremists running the federal government and other institutions is a clear danger to our free people.
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The Hon. Thaddeus McCotter is the former chairman of the Republican House Policy Committee, current itinerant guitarist, American Greatness contributor, and Monday co-host of the “John Batchelor Show.”
