Are you Antifa?

In response to the violence erupting during the protests against the murder of George Floyd under the knee of the Minneapolis police, Donald Trump has tweeted his decision that Antifa will be declared a terrorist organization. This has been a goal of right-wing agitators for several years now, ever since they found their ideology challenged in a way that is not the polite sniffles of establishment Democrats on Sunday news shows. Today’s Antifa is but the latest iteration of opposition to fascism that has gone under a variety of related names. It comes as no surprise that the contemporary right wing feels themselves threatened. Fascists do not like having their deeds held up to criticism and cry in rage when their brutality on the streets meets resistance, and when they gain power, they do everything they can to silence the opposition.

What Trump might have in mind is anyone’s guess, since the U.S. has no legal authority to designate groups within the country as terrorist organizations, and in any case, Antifa is not similar to the Mafia or even to a political party. William Barr has said that he will use the power of the Department of Justice to pursue charges against people who cross state lines to riot, though, indicating that the Trump administration will take any steps available to them in setting up and then setting ablaze their current favorite bogeyman. Or perhaps they will not, since in Trump’s world, a…