1. Taking Antifa Seriously
Andrew talked about Antifa and No Kings this morning, but I want to dig in a little more to draw your attention to three Antifa-related actions Republicans have taken over the last four weeks. Because they aren’t really about “Antifa.”
They’re about you.
First, President Trump signed an executive order designating Antifa as a “domestic terrorist organization.”
The text of the EO itself is ridiculous. There is no Antifa “organization.” There are loose associations of people who consider themselves to be part of an anti-fascist movement. But “Antifa” is not like the Oath Keepers. There is no leader, no membership roster, no organization.
Just read the EO:
Antifa is a militarist, anarchist enterprise that explicitly calls for the overthrow of the United States Government, law enforcement authorities, and our system of law.
“Explicitly”? Where’s the mission statement? Where’s Antifa Code of Conduct? Who’s the chairman? Who’s the treasurer? How much are membership dues?
If you wanted to seriously talk about Antifa as a terrorist threat, you’d compare it to white nationalism or Islamist terrorism. Those are diffuse movements that lack unifying organizations—like Antifa. (Important caveat in the footnotes.1)
But the administration realizes that there is no “enterprise” that “explicitly” does anything. The president is merely attempting to link the ideas of Antifa and terrorism in the minds of the public.
Why would he do that?
Next, Trump held an “Antifa roundtable” at the White House. The most notable aspect of this meeting was that Trump shifted his definition of Antifa from being an organized criminal enterprise to a more nebulous ideological concept. Here are the relevant passages:
It should be clear to all Americans that we have a very serious left-wing terror threat in our country, radicals associated with the domestic terror group Antifa. . . .
In July, approximately a dozen Antifa-aligned militants stormed the ICE facility in Texas. . . .
The epidemic of left-wing violence and Antifa-inspired terror has been escalating for nearly a decade.
The bold is mine because I want you to note the sleight of hand. We’ve gone from “Antifa is an enterprise” to “the people who did these bad things were somehow associated with, or philosophically aligned with, or inspired by Antifa.”
Those are very different things.
Why the prestidigitation? Because ultimately what the Trump administration is trying to do is label you a terrorist. You can tell because