The MAGA Movement is a Bigger Threat to the USA than the Taliban.

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The Taliban and Al Qaeda are among the most vile, dangerous violent extremist organizations in the world. They pose a threat that must be taken very seriously and actively combatted. They do not, however, pose an existential threat to the United States or our way of life.

Trump and his supporters have, with support of one of America’s most dangerous enemies, actively sought to undermine democracy in America. The coup attempt on January 6th and the propagation of the Big Lie are an example of this. Their efforts to suppress the vote are an example of this.

Trump’s active obstruction of justice is an example of this. Should they succeed, democracy in America will be gutted, our way of life ended, our values undermined and our standing in the world destroyed. They may yet succeed. As a consequence, the threat they pose is far greater to the United States as a whole.

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And that while the threat posed by foreign terrorists is real, it has been vastly overstated in the wake of 9/11. We should not have treated those terrorists as being analogous to prior international enemies of the modern era like the Nazis or the Soviets. They instead pose a more limited kind of risk than was presented, a risk that despite their rhetoric was not to our society or institutions broadly but was instead sporadic and opportunist. We are better off responding to them with specialized counter-terror measures, expanded intelligence capabilities, hardened assets and greater public-private coordination in the identification of, preparation for and reaction to threats.

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Speaking of imminent threats, the rising daily COVID tolls driven by a Trumpist, partisan rejection of science is certainly one. The fact that Trump and his supporters, including many high GOP officials, are defending the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, continuing to perpetuate their lies about the fairness of the last election, and actively working to try to rig future elections all drive home the point that the threat from the former president has not receded.

For these reasons, it is irrefutable that Trump and many of the people seeking to advance his agenda or claim it for themselves are poised to have a far greater negative impact on Americans and the country as a whole than foreign extremist groups.

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