I’ve got great news. Despite its notorious history of racist and anti-government violence carried out by militia groups, we may no longer need to worry about domestic terrorism in Idaho. The Idaho Senate voted Thursday 27-8 to advance a bill that defines “domestic terrorism” as requiring the involvement of foreign groups. According to the bill, if there’s no foreign involvement, then there can be no domestic terrorism.
According to the bill, if there’s no foreign involvement, then there can be no domestic terrorism.
If you think that sounds like it’s opposite the meaning of “domestic,” you’re right. The problem is not only that this contortionist’s view of our domestic threat defies logic, but also that it seems aimed at clouding any perception of fellow Americans as a threat.
Idaho Senate Bill 1220’s statement of purpose explains that it would codify this bizarre definition of domestic terrorism while simultaneously ensuring that no one in Idaho could be called a domestic terrorist, or a terrorist of any kind, unless they’ve been convicted of or pleaded guilty to activities connected to a foreign terrorist group.
Idaho Senate Majority Leader Kelly Anthon, the Republican who sponsored the bill, wraps himself in a “free speech” defense when he explains his proposal to essentially erase the notion of domestic terrorism as we know it. To hear him tell it, terrorists are simply people who speak their minds and hang out with their peers.
“You have the right to say things that people don’t like,” Anthon said. People “have a right to assemble and protest the government for their grievances, even when you don’t like the group. There’s a lot of these groups I don’t like, but they have a constitutional right to do it.”
Of course, Anthon’s idea of free speech has its limits. You apparently don’t have the right to call someone a domestic terrorist. “If you are called a domestic terrorist it is going to affect your name, it’s…
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