When Beliefs Are Declared Crimes

The War on Beliefs

This past summer, President Trump declared he would strip free-speech rights from anyone who, in his words, “agitates or irritates crowds.” His words were framed as targeting people who burn flags, but this bold statement followed the release of National Security Presidential Memorandum-7 (NSPM-7), a directive that officially redefines common political beliefs as potential "domestic terrorism indicators."

According to this Memorandum, "Common threads animating this violent conduct include anti-Americanism, anti-capitalism, and anti-Christianity; support for the overthrow of the United States Government; extremism on migration, race, and gender; and hostility towards those who hold traditional American views on family, religion, and morality." One would assume that any non- violent political or social justice activity would excluded, and therefore not under attack. But these are not "normal times."

When the President uses language like:

• "War ravaged Portland"
• "our ICE Facilities under siege from attack by Antifa, and other domestic terrorists,"
• "Invasion from within the city [of Los Angeles]," and "city was under siege until we got there,"

When the facts are rewritten, then the concern becomes that free speech is no longer protected, and those exercising it might be deemed terrorists.

The Secret Lists and Tip Line Targets Dissenters

The Bondi Memo specifically identifies targets as those expressing "opposition to law and immigration enforcement; extreme views in favor of mass migration and open borders; adherence to radical gender ideology." This directive, published in Ken Klippenstein's Substack, represents a dangerous expansion of power.

The FBI is being directed to use all available investigative tools to "map the full network of culpable actors involved" in these purported domestic terrorist organizations. The memo further reveals that the Justice Department plans to:

• Establish recommendations to better publicize the FBI's tip line for submitting tips related to domestic terrorism
• Establish a cash reward system for tips leading to arrests of leadership figures
• Create "cooperators to provide information and testify against other members" of these groups
• Prioritize funding for state and local law enforcement to go after "domestic terrorism"

Join Kent County Indivisible

As we work to protect our constitutional rights from those who seek to undermine them. Because when "the enemy" is defined not by actions but by ideas, we're all at risk.

Sign up

The Threat to Democracy

The memo reveals that the Department of Justice is weaponizing the FBI’s tipline system, creating a reward program that actively encourages Americans to spy on their own communities. This creates a culture of suspicion and betrayal in our communities, where the trust required for self-governance is not just undermined it’s being actively attacked.

As Ken Klippenstein writes in his Substack:

"Where NSPM-7 was a declaration of war on just about anyone who isn't MAGA, this is the war plan for how the government will wage it on a tactical level."

This is not just about security policy; it's about the erosion of fundamental rights. When "the government" can declare that certain political views constitute "terrorism," when the Justice Department can order the FBI to target people based on their beliefs or their "extreme views," when Americans are being encouraged to report on their neighbors, we are witnessing the dismantling of democracy itself.

Join our community that is organizing to support Democracy on the Kent County Indivisible Discord

Join Discord

Why This Should Matter to You

Your constitutional rights may depend on whether Trump's administration agrees with your politics. This isn't a distant possibility, it's beginning now.

We've seen this pattern before in history. When a government criminalizes political belief that doesn't agree with them, the consequences are predictable. This isn't the government combating terrorism, it's the government using the concept of "terrorism" to criminalize dissent and opposition.

What This Means for Democracy

This is the pattern of authoritarianism: not through overt oppression, but through slow, deliberate corrosion of our rights. Democracy isn’t a system, it’s a practice. It depends on us exercising our rights as citizens.

When political beliefs become crimes, when we can't express our opposition to government policy without fear of prosecution, Democracy dies.

The price of liberty, and even of common humanity, is eternal vigilance.
- Aldous Huxley, 1956

What Comes Next?

In the next few weeks we'll be exploring what this means to those of us who hold these beliefs, one of the administration's tools for investigation that already has a growing presence in Kent County, and what we can do about it.