Don’t Let the Capitol Riot Reignite the War on Terror

“All animals experience fear—human beings, perhaps, most of all.” The government depends on it to “secure popular submission, compliance with official dictates, and, on some occasions, affirmative cooperation with the state’s enterprises and adventures,” wrote the historian Robert Higgs in a 2005 essay.

The storming of the Capitol was a horrifying event, and Americans were understandably traumatized. But the reaction to a crisis also requires special vigilance.

After the horror of the 9/11 attacks, many Americans acquiesced in the face of any policy that promised to keep them safe.

We got mass surveillance, deadly foreign wars, state-sanctioned torture, and the incompetent Department of Homeland Security.

This week’s armed lockdown of D.C.—in preparation for the swearing-in of a new government—provides us with a visceral feel for the legislative proposals we can expect in the months to come.

“They were a riotous mob. Insurrectionists. Domestic terrorists,” President-elect Joe Biden said. “It’s that basic. It’s that simple.”

In his remarks after the Capitol attack, Biden promised to revive a domestic terrorism bill that would make “the same commitment to root out domestic terrorism as we have [made] to stopping international te