Stephen Miller Calls Democrats a “Domestic Extremist Organization”

We are all familiar with the Trump presidential strategy of “flooding the zone.” Its premise is that the mainstream media is incapable of running with more than one or two stories at a time. Therefore, if you hit the system on multiple fronts simultaneously this will take the wind out of any opposition. Hence the Trump regime’s accelerating addiction to outrage upon outrage.

Indeed, as if drugged on its own extremism, the Trump team are accelerating their assaults. In her Substack^[2], Diving Into Data & Decision-Making, Christina Pagel, who has been tracking the White House, has just itemized the one-thousandth authoritarian-like action initiated by its current denizen.

The first 250 took three months. The most recent 250 just a single month. She lists them all under five headings: undermining democratic institutions and the rule of law, dismantling federal government and its protections, suppressing dissent, attacking science, and unleashing global destabilization.

A little noticed but I think critical outrage does not get itemized under these headings. It seems not to have drawn any angry outrage. Instead, a shrug of familiarity seems to have replaced taking full advantage of what from this side of the Atlantic seems to be a clear opportunity.

Perhaps it comes from the UK not having a written Constitution and instead being governed by a system that relies on moral codes as much as rules. It means that really clear breaches of behavior can bring down even mighty politicians. Boris Johnson, the UK’s would-be Trump, found this to his cost when a final egregious dishonesty led to so many members of his government resigning, he had to do so too.

On August 25, Stephen Miller, the president’s homeland security adviser and White House deputy chief of staff, gave an interview to Sean Hannity on Fox News saying: “The Democrat [sic] Party does not fight for, care about, or represent American citizens. It is an entity devoted exclusively [his emphasis] to the defense of hardened criminals, gang-bangers, and illegal, alien killers and terrorists. The Democrat Party is not a political party. It is a domestic extremist organization.”

It is worth watching for yourself^[3], to witness Miller’s snarling tone and premeditated virulence.

The two of them then discuss how to be happy you need to be safe and how Trump has liberated Washington, DC.

The important thing is not the policy but the fact that the most influential driver of Trump’s domestic agenda literally claims that the Democratic Party lacks legitimacy, is an extremist organization that defends terrorists and is “not a political party.” The claim goes well beyond the step-by-step usurpation of constitutional normality. It is a claim that tolls the bell for US democracy, such as it still is.

If Miller were simply a run-of-the-mill MAGA supporter barking out his or her vile prejudice, they a shrug of the shoulders might be justified. But he is more than just a voice of Trump’s White House. He designs and oversees the implementation of policy, gives instructions to ICE, commands “homeland security” and assists the overall running of the executive branch.

Recently, it has become clear that as Trump’s popularity declines his team are taking steps to militarize voting. The strategy is obvious enough. You make mail-in voting illegitimate and put ICE, backed by the National Guard, around every voting center to intimidate any potential voter of color and anyone who looks like a Democrat and prevent them getting to the voting machine.

After all, how can you allow people to vote for an “entity” dedicated to the support of terrorism, hardened criminals and illegal aliens? It would indeed to be quite wrong to do so.

Therefore, the Democrats in Congress should unite to demand that Stephen Miller either be fired or that he apologize and withdraw his grotesque claims. Because the person entrusted with executive authority over Homeland Security has literally declared civil war on the representatives of half the American population.

The clarity of his claims is an opportunity to unleash repudiation with a clear focus: Get Miller, wound him, insist that such views are beyond the pale for any official whosoever.

Compared to the Trump regime’s authoritarian policies; from the bizarre and self-harming assault on renewable energy, to the callous incarceration of hard-working immigrants, to the militarization of city policing, the racist instructions to museums and the dismantling of precious health regulations, Miller’s rants on a Fox News show may seem marginal. The point is that they are an opportunity: a clear case of a powerful Trump loyalist making utterly unacceptable claims.

Are the Democrats a major political party? If so, they should never allow a leading official to describe them in this fashion.

Let it be normalized, and a permission is issued for Miller to proceed.

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