The Republican-led Senate in Idaho just advanced a bill that would define domestic terrorism as terrorist activity committed in connection with “foreign groups,” which leaves one glaring question: Why didn’t they just go ahead and call it the Americans Can’t Be Terrorists Act?
According to Idaho Capital Sun, on Thursday, the state Senate voted 27-8 to pass Senate Bill 1220, which not only defines “domestic terrorism” as terrorism associated with foreign groups but also redefines terrorism in general as pretty much the same thing.
Imagine that. You’re only a terrorist if your act of terror was in collaboration with someone outside of the U.S. Jan. 6 rioters, American white supremacists and neo-Nazis, and all of the white mass shooters the media and conservative politicians call “lone wolves”—none of them are terrorists unless we find out some Muslim guy overseas was in on the plot, according to the bill in Idaho.
So, how are Republicans going to justify this? Obviously, they’ll deny the white privilege aspect of it, because that’s what they do, but what’s the practical reason for legislation like this?
Spoiler alert: It’s every bit as dumb as you might imagine. From the Sun:
The bill sponsor, Senate Majority Leader Kelly Anthon, R-Burley, said the purpose of the legislation is to protect free speech.
“You have the right to say things that people don’t like,” Anthon said during the Senate debate. “(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.”
Anthon said the bill was inspired by the government casting suspicion on parents who protested policies at school board meetings during the COVID-19 pandemic. Anthon used Moms of Liberty, who the Southern Poverty Law Center defines as a far-right anti-government organization, as an example of a…
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