Is MAGA a Domestic Terrorism Group?
Hate, Violence, Threats and Attacks on Our Own Soil
Since we can remember, there has been hate. Hate is taught, hate is learned. No one is born hating specific groups of people, they learn it from family or friends.
We have seen a steady increase in this ever since Donald Trump rode down that escalator into dividing our country even further than it was and making it acceptable to publicly attack other people for being different than them for their race, religion or sexual orientation.
We have seen homegrown militia groups famously given nicknames like “Gravy Seals” or “Meal Team Six” who do actual boot camps and practice. We have The Oathkeepers, The Three Percenters, and The Proud Boys who were instrumental in assisting Trump in his attempt in his unsuccessful bid at stopping the Electoral count on January 6, 2021.
Data provided (only through 2022) shows us just how far this has gone since 2015 (when Trump announced his original bid for candidacy). been 333 domestic terrorism plots or attacks in the United States – an all-time high. Right-wing extremists have perpetrated 80% of those attacks, resulting in 91 tragic deaths.
Domestic terrorism is a threat we can’t ignore
Attacks and demonstrations have been increasingly due to far right ideology ever since it has been “normalized”. We simply cannot allow this to be the norm. In Canada, The Oathkeepers and The Proud Boys are listed on the Terrorist list, something we should be doing here in the United States along with considering adding MAGA to that list. Make these crimes by these groups have harsher punishments, as they are born from hate. Hate from all different sources and the bottom line it that it truly is a hate group,
The Center for Strategic and International Studies is a reputable and unbiased source which has published some unsettling data and just as of 2022 notes perpetrator ideology for crimes:
Of the 77 terrorist events in 2021, 38 events (49 percent) were perpetrated by those on the violent far-right, 31 events (40 percent) by the violent far-left, 3 events (4 percent) by Salafi-jihadists, 2 events (3 percent) by ethnonationalists, and 3 events (4 percent) by those with other motives.
Most violent far-right perpetrators were motivated by white supremacist or anti-government sentiments, and they committed most of the fatal attacks in 2021. Of the 30 fatalities in 2021, 28 resulted from far-right terrorist attacks. White supremacists killed 13 people, a violent misogynist killed 8, anti-government extremists killed 4, and an anti-vaccination perpetrator killed 3. On June 26 in Winthrop, Massachusetts, for example, Nathan Allen shot and killed two Black individuals after crashing a stolen box truck. Allen had frequently read extremist material and had written journals filled with white nationalist beliefs, including calls for white people—who he believed to be “apex predators”—to kill Black people
Most violent far-left perpetrators were motivated by anarchism, anti-fascism, or anti-police stances. Although these actors committed a historically high number of terrorist attacks and plots in 2021, only one resulted in a fatality. On June 24 in Daytona Beach, Florida, Othal Wallace shot and killed local police officer Jason Raynor. Wallace had links to several Black nationalist paramilitary groups, including the Not F*****g Around Coalition and Black Nation, the latter of which he founded in early 2021
Source:
Center for Strategic and International Studies
Another great article from the CSIS is recently published from just October 21. 2024 called “The Rising Threat of Anti-Government Domestic Terrorism: What the Data Tells Us” and linked below.
The Rising Threat of Anti-Government Domestic Terrorism: What the Data Tells Us
CSIS compiled and analyzed a dataset of 725 terrorist attacks and plots in the United States between January 1, 1994, and April 30, 2024. The dataset includes information such as incident date, location, target and location type, weapon used, and fatalities, as well as perpetrator age, sex, ideology, group affiliation, and current or former affiliation with the military or law enforcement.
While this article focuses on Government officials more than the general public, it is important to understand the ideology of the perpetrators which mirrors the same as the attacks that are not on Government officials.
This data has shown that:
In the past 30 years, the most common motive has been general anti-government sentiment. In the dataset, these general anti-government beliefs have been separated from more specific ideologies that also motivate attacks and plots against government targets, such as anarchism, Salafi-jihadism, white supremacy, environmentalism, and the sovereign citizen movement. The dataset also distinguishes between attacks motivated by general anti-government sentiment and those motivated by partisan political beliefs.
I believe it is time to call on our local and state Representatives to create bills to consider adding MAGA to the Domestic Terrorist list as they are based in hate and are openly committing crimes on a daily basis. I mean someone was bold enough (or dumb enough) to try to push a bill through to call “Antifa” a hate group (this still makes me laugh every time I think about it)
If interested, it was introduced by Senator Bill Cassidy (R-LA) - duh and was called: S.Res.279 - introduced 7/18/19, Calling for the designation of Antifa as a domestic terrorist organization. Nothing ever came from it. Again, duh.
Thanks for reading and let’s make this an election to remember on Tuesday!