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If you’re among the millions of Americans a report from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) tarred as terrorists last month, you probably rejoiced on Tuesday when a Congressional committee voted to investigate this libel. But don’t pop the bubbly just yet. The government’s staging its usual farce: politicians who repeatedly vote to fund unconstitutional agencies with our taxes are shocked, shocked when said agency ravages the American people – but that doesn’t stop them from “appropriating” more of our money for the culprit in next year’s budget.
You no doubt remember the DHS’s notorious and nefarious report even if you can’t recall its unwieldy title: "Rightwing Extremism: Current Economic and Political Climate Fueling Resurgence in Radicalization and Recruitment." Its nine paranoid pages condemn Americans who disagree even slightly with our rulers’ diktats as “domestic terrorists.” Do you deplore politicians’ theft of your money to subsidize the murder of unborn children? You must be a terrorist. Do you honor the Constitution, even – gasp! – the Second Amendment? Clearly, you’re a terrorist, as is anyone who denounces the State’s support for sodomy or the fascism devouring the country.
Terrorists wreak their direst evil in the voting booth: they pull the lever for the Libertarian or Constitution Parties rather than either branch of the ruling conglomerate. Terrorists also applaud one of the conglomerate’s staunchest critics, Dr. Ron Paul. Worse, they send him money the conglomerate covets.
We terrorists buy the political class the luxury and idle hands that make it the Devil’s workshop. So we might expect some gratitude rather than the insults DHS’s report dishes out. No wonder outraged taxpayers excoriated it.
That raised the curtain on the usual, bipartisan charade, one in which Democrats and Republicans wink, smirk, and cue each other while the audience stares blindly. We’re robbed of half our wealth to fund this show, and we’ve watched it all our lives. Yet few of us ever decipher the gentlemen’s agreement binding the players: at the end of the day, whether the Democrats yield a bit of power to the Republicans or vice versa, the State itself grows. Indeed, the two parties share its power, tossing it back and forth with their well-rehearsed lines, defending it and one another from us. Politicians squabble, certainly, but that’s just to amuse the audience. They understand that it’s them against us even if we don’t. The most partisan Democrat and Republican have far more in common with one another than with us. They’re devoutly committed to the State and its authority, especially their own little bit of the latter – not to liberty, the Constitution, or even simple decency.
The present episode follows the script. When conservative Americans protested the report, Republican politicians who normally hype the “homeland security” scam scurried to damn DHS and Democrats. Dana Rohrabacker (R-CA) was typical. “The fact the report singles out issues like abortion and immigration shows it was put together from a left wing political perspective,” he huffed. On cue, Democrats retorted that the Bush Administration commissioned the report.
DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano entered stage-left to defend her bureaucracy. “We are on the lookout for criminal and terrorist activity but we do not - nor will we ever - monitor ideology or political beliefs,” she promised despite the document’s advice to do exactly that.
The report also defames military veterans. They not only hanker to blow up the status quo but are skilled in doing so. That slur ignited the American Legion, among others. Its National Commander David K. Rehbein demanded – and got – a meeting with Napolitano. “I offered him my sincere apologies for any offense to our veterans caused by this report,” she announced. And she “pledge[d] that the department has fixed the internal process that allowed this document to be released before it was ready." Oh, right. If only DHS had edited the report, it would commend our patriotism rather than call us terrorists. Unfortunately for Napolitano, a re-write isn’t possible: the FBI has been monitoring vets since last December. The entire government fears Americans who know a gun’s barrel from its butt and smears them as terrorists.
Back in their dressing rooms, Napolitano and Rehbein indulged in the usual horse-trading. Given the Legion’s reputation, we might hope its Commander would ask why the government is spying on supposedly free citizens. Instead, he concentrated on picking our pockets for his special interest: “Commander Rehbein…turned the 45-minute discussion to topics that will serve to help America's veterans. … [T]he DHS Secretary and the Commander agreed … to work in tandem to … advocate on behalf of veterans. The Secretary pledged to appoint a VSO (Veterans Service Organization) liaison within DHS and redouble efforts to recruit veterans into DHS-related U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and U.S. Customs and Border Protection positions.”
The House Homeland Security Committee’s call for a “formal inquiry” into the report opens the tragedy’s next scene. Chairman Bennie Thompson (D-Miss) has reprised his role as indignant, this-had-better-be-made-right-or-else,-I'm-here-to-protect-the-American-people legislator countless times. One of his favorite props is the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), the abusive and absurdly incompetent bureaucracy that searches us at airport checkpoints. Thompson regularly scolds the TSA for its waste and its cheating on performance tests; he’s even condemned its parent bureaucracy, good old DHS, for its systemic incompetence. Yet nothing changes. The TSA continues to squander almost $7 billion of our money year after year, thanks to congressmen like Thompson who play us for chumps.
Expect the same drama this time. Thompson flubbed his first lines – he dismissed an earlier call for an investigation as just “another GOP stunt aimed at embarrassing the new administration” – but he’s up to speed now. "When this DHS-produced assessment first surfaced in April, like many Americans, I had issues with its content," he intoned. "I am interested in getting all of the facts that went into this report. I would expect the department to provide without prejudice whatever information is available."
Another of the committee’s members, Peter King (R-NY), explained its unanimous vote to investigate by stressing that the report isn’t a “partisan” issue but an “American” one.
Wrong. It’s standard government issue.
Becky Akers, an expert on the American Revolution, writes frequently about issues related to security and privacy. Her articles and columns have been published by Lewrockwell.com, The Freeman, Military History Magazine, American History Magazine, the Christian Science Monitor, the New York Post, and other publications.
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