I’m not saying that there’s going to be a terrorist attack anytime soon; I’m just saying that if you wanted to increase the likelihood of a terrorist attack, what Trump and Musk are doing is the perfect recipe for disaster.
Even under normal, well-planned, and cohesive Presidential transitions, there is always a higher risk of a terrorist attack, whether foreign or domestic. 9/11 is a great example. The outgoing Clinton administration warned the incoming Bush administration that counter-terrorism should be their top priority and that they had big concerns about Al Qaeda. The transition was prolonged because the election wasn’t fully settled until December. And even though Ashcroft and Rice reportedly were concerned about terrorism, they also viewed the Clinton team as lightweights and basically thought they knew how to better restructure our intelligence.
Well, they missed some pretty big signs, and granted, part of that was the result of the safeguards that had been put in place over the years to protect the privacy of American citizens. But still, even that somewhat chaotic transition helped to allow 9/11 to happen. So, where am I going with this? Man, I thought I had a point. I was going to say something, what was it now? Oh, yeah, this is the most insanely dangerous Presidential transition of all time. I’d put us at level Red if you’re old enough to remember what that means. A little trivia there for the folks working on their memory skills.
Now, I was never in the camp that believed that Team Bush knew a terrorist attack was going to happen and then ignored it—a lot of people bought into stuff like that back then. Some even believed the Bush administration was behind 9/11; that’s how crazy it all got. But what became obvious was that they were ready to capitalize on it when it did happen. They already had plans for drastically increasing the military budget, restructuring the DOJ, and the relationship between the FBI and CIA, and they had outlines of what would become the Department of Homeland Security. And of course, they wanted to topple Saddam Hussein, so they used 9/11 as an excuse to do all of it. They were kind of fumbling around until 9/11 happened, and then, voilà, carte blanche. They had to fight for it, but they got a lot of what they wanted. And much like Project 2025, they had multiple playbooks at the ready. One of them was known as the Project for a New American Century, which was an outline for the War on Terror and the military expansionism that we embarked on in the wake of 9/11.
Well, that was Team Bush, by most accounts a completely terrible administration, the worst in modern history—until now. So I don’t think it’s a stretch to think that the Trump administration will follow Bush’s example of capitalizing on a terrorist attack to further their agenda. And let’s be serious, their agenda is outlined in Project 2025. A blueprint for rolling back the gains of the 20th century in almost every aspect of our society and this should be obvious to everyone by now, turn us back into a police state akin to what Jim Crow was for our black population–but this time for anyone who doesn’t tow the state’s agenda.
I can’t say with certainty that the Trump administration wants a terrorist attack, but I will say that if you did want a terrorist attack, there are some things you can do to make it more likely. Like disrupting your intelligence agencies and distracting them with other priorities. Firing a lot of them while calling them parasites is another great way to pull everyone’s head out of the game. Putting in place a massive and chaotic restructuring program, based on false accusations, without communicating exactly what everyone should expect, is also good for disruption. Maybe put a bunch of completely maniacal idiots in charge of the Pentagon, the DOJ and the FBI. And then, just to put a cherry on top, go ahead and piss off the whole world, even the Canadians. Brilliant, what could possibly go wrong?
Besides pissing off the whole world, there’s never been any unanticipated consequences from demoralizing our veterans has there? Oh, there has been? Timothy McVeigh is just one recent example. So yeah, let’s throw in cutting health care and other benefits for vets. Why not? And that brings me to militia groups, would say pardoning a bunch of them for trying to overthrow the government, maybe add fuel to the fire? Mmmh. Never thought of that.
Well, there’s no reason to go on and on. This administration is already defying courts and breaking laws left and right. And as opposition grows, and it is definitely growing, they’re going to look for anything that can help them continue their agenda to seize power. They’re moving fast because all of their power rests in keeping enough people fooled until it’s too late. But nationwide rallies are being planned, sporadic protests are popping up daily, and republicans can’t even speak at their own town halls anymore. Law firms are starting to fight back, Harvard is standing up and there’s a growing sense that it’s still possible to stop these guys. So, whether a real terrorist attack occurs or they turn some small event into what they’ll call a national emergency, they could really use something like 9/11 to fall into their lap. And when something happens and they pull out all the stops, it’s going to make a lot of people want to back down. But that’s exactly the moment when we have to keep resisting. Well, the good news is that we have some precedent for that. Even recent precedent.
People forget this, but after 9/11, more people took to the streets to try to stop the US invasion of Iraq than we had seen in decades. Between January and April of 2003, it is estimated that 36 million people participated in over 3,000 events worldwide. The effort failed to prevent the invasion, but it proved that even in the face of intimidation, people could still rally. And there was a lot of intimidation. It’s hard for people to remember this because the war became unpopular a few years on, when the horror of what we were doing started to set in; When the images of torture started being published and as Iraq devolved into a civil war. But before that, there was a lot of intimidation. People were getting riled up and were shouting down anyone who spoke out against the war. Major news outlets started self-censoring and downplaying anti-war sentiment. I was a freelancer at the time, and I knew not to be vocal with clients about where I stood on the war. But still, some found out, and I can say from personal experience that when it was found out that I was against the invasion and that I thought that Bush was misleading the public, I lost a good amount of work. That wasn’t an uncommon experience at the time.
So the point is that they’re already trying to intimidate all opposition, and whether it’s a terrorist attack, or something that they’ll call civil unrest, or maybe they’ll make up something whole cloth, they’re going to pull out all the stops and use it as a way to to squash all dissent. That’s why it’s important to remember that we stood up to intimidation before, and not too long ago. But beyond that, we have a long history of standing up in the face of adversity. We did it during Vietnam, and the civil rights movement, and the labor movement, and the Women’s Suffrage movement, and we can do it again. In fact, we’ll have to. And as Heather Cox Richardson has been saying, we should use this as an opportunity to define the kind of country we want to live in, because there’s no going back to the world before January 20th, 2025. It’s already been dismantled. But we now have an opportunity to look at what was broken, what our problems were, and begin the process of building something better. One where we have affordable housing, health care, living wages, good schools and a clean and safe environment for future generations. All of that is still possible, and we now have a better idea of why we need it than ever before.
But first, we have to stop the Republicans from doing much more damage and get them out of our way. The longer we let them take us down this road, the harder it will be to rebuild. So, no matter what happens, the time to resist is now.