It's Hard to Counter Terrorism If You're Not Actually Trying
Here’s Yet Another Domestic Terrorism Attack
The news of yet another domestic terrorism attack is making its way around. Here’s a short video summary —
Shots were fired at politicians’ homes specifically to terrorize them. It was instigated and coordinated by a man who had been a Republican candidate for office but who lost his election.
That’s domestic terrorism. It’s also political violence.
So What Are We Doing About It?
We’re not doing a damn thing about it as a country.
The January 6th Committee didn’t even focus on the domestic violent extremism problem that was a huge piece of the insurrection… and how we can counter it. It didn’t focus on the law enforcement failures then, either, or what we should be doing now.
I’m sure people get tired of hearing about 9/11, but the response to it is such a stark contrast to now. We actually acted collectively in response. As a country.
We didn’t all agree, but we did have a shared sentiment that big things needed to be done. We did have bipartisan and other national discussions about how to respond. Those went on literally for years — really until the next major catastrophe hit: Hurricane Katrina, in 2005. Good, bad, or indifferent… that disaster broke the 9/11 focus to a certain extent.
The number of things we collectively loosely coordinated and talked about after 9/11 is fairly spectacular. We reorganized the government. We overhauled public private coordination. We invented a whole new thing — homeland security. We started a “forever war” in Afghanistan, and then another war for no good reason. But the overall lists are huge.
Plus, we were emotional together. We grieved together. We were angry together. We were scared together. It was an attack from outside, and it was easy to unite.
It was an effective attack, too, because the fear persisted for years. When I say “effective” — I mean as a terrorist attack. It was so effective that we willingly lived with a very high number of questionably effective security measures for years. We still live with many of those provisions. Not that those post-9/11 security measures are going to do us any good right now when one of our greatest national security threats is domestic violent extremism potentially coming from our own citizens, neighbors, and community members.
Terrorism Made Easy
Plus, now anyone can become an Instant Terrorist without much fuss at all.
Just pick up an assault rifle while you’re out running errands. No need for all the mess of trying to build bombs or stealing nuclear components. These days you can be a terrorist just by walking around with an assault rifle looking out-of-context but completely threatening.
And so many far-right extremists are doing exactly that… especially to demonstrate the threat of violence outside of what were fairly normal LGBTQ+ activities.
What are we doing about that, exactly, together? Nothing.
Small groups of folks are doing what they can. But there’s no national political conversation about this, about solving it, or about how it’s not okay. And anti-LGBTQ+ activities are just one example.
One problem, of course, is that one whole now far-right political party is actually fomenting and inspiring the terror threats, the intimidation, and the violence. No point in listing examples for illustration. They’re everywhere. I could just drive to the grocery store and see people with their brazen, threatening bumper stickers and flags. It’s all over the place.
Now we have Representative Marjorie Taylor Green on the US House’s Homeland Security Committee. For real.
We’re never, ever going to to work on countering domestic violent extremism when the extremists are overseeing the government.
So What Do We Do?
We get Americans fired up and fighting back. Being courageous. Standing up against hate. Finding ways to center and champion humans. Finding ways to champion inclusion, diversity, and equity.
This nonprofit was built for exactly this kind of a threat. It was clear that things were going to get bad. Predictably, they are. Are they’re intensifying. This violence and terrorism is ramping up nationally; not diffusing. Nobody’s working to do any diffusion, either. Not at scale.
We can get people in the coalition of the majority including Democrats, independents, and ex-Republicans to stand up together and champion a different way forward in this country.
It’s not going to happen, though, if we just sit back in horror wondering when someone’s going to do something.
I’m talking about evolving the way we fight in politics. We need to get more brazen. We need to command more media attention. We need to drive more of the local narrative — and the national one.
WE NEED TO PUSH BACK.
Seriously.
This nonprofit, Shift the Country, has set up a ridiculous number of online Zoom calls for ramping up our action over the next few week. It’s a big push to get this action started. We’ll start building this work with whoever shows up. We’re flexible, too — if you’ve got a focus area or some big idea, let us know. It’s time to think outside the box.
We cannot let fear win.
We do need to counter this terrorism. Watching it unfold isn’t going to do it. We’re going to have to do more. We can figure out what that is together.
For what it’s worth, our approach here starts with 1) connection, and humans; 2) doing more with communities and coalitions — we can leverage bigger power; 3) pressuring and partnering with business; 4) championing moral courage, vision, and values; and 5) getting more attention and drive more of the narrative. 5 Things.
Our event list is here in this post, or check out Eventbrite directly. Also, we totally need donations to get this shift going — either through ActBlue, or our website.
Be well. Be safe. Get courageous.
And get ready. We can do big things. That includes shifting the direction of this country to one that works better for the majority of us — where we all have a better chance to thrive and flourish. Time to choose a different path.
You in?