This article first appeared in People’s World.

Do you have criticisms of U.S. domestic or foreign policy? Question the capitalist system of billionaire rule and think socialism might be better? Oppose restrictions on abortion rights? Think mass deportation might not be the best idea? Believe our country still has work to do in dealing with racism and discrimination? Support equal rights for your immigrant and LGBTQ neighbors? Do you donate to liberal or progressive organizations or causes?

If you answered “yes” to any of these questions, then you could be designated a part of the vast domestic terrorist conspiracy that’s been imagined into existence by a new presidential memorandum signed by Donald Trump.

The document, titled “Countering Domestic Terrorism and Organized Political Violence” and officially designated as National Security Presidential Memorandum 7, or NSPM-7, orders a host of agencies under Trump’s command to wage war on the political left and anyone who disagrees with the MAGA agenda — and by extension, on the U.S. Constitution.

NSPM-7 lumps all criticism of or disagreements with the actions of the Trump administration — especially when it comes to law enforcement and border control — under the category of the “anti-fascist lie” and then labels the latter as a terrorist ideology and catalyst for political violence.

In laying out the rationale for the order, Trump and its likely author, White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller, built upon on the MAGA narrative that the Charlie Kirk assassination and other recent unrelated incidents — like anti-ICE protests, the killing of United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson, and attempts on the lives of Trump and Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh — are the work of some organized conspiracy on the left.

Sounding like Sen. Joseph McCarthy in 1950, Miller claims the memo signals the start of an “all-of-government effort to dismantle left-wing terrorism.” What NSPM-7 would actually do, however, is dismantle what’s left of U.S. democracy.

The memorandum retools the government’s Joint Terrorism Task Forces (JTTFs) — the counterterrorism network juggernaut of federal, state, and local agencies ramped up in the aftermath of 9/11 — to focus on the red herring issue of supposed “radical left” violence.

NSPM-7 lists what the JTTFs are to look for as indicators in tracking down those responsible for the non-existent “pattern of violent and terroristic activities under the umbrella of self-described ‘anti-fascism.’” The “threads” linking the individuals and groups to be targeted are specific enough to pinpoint particular ideas but sufficiently broad to allow the government free rein in going after anyone its leaders so choose.

They include, in the words of Trump’s memo:

• anti-Americanism
• anti-capitalism
• anti-Christianity
• support for the overthrow of the United States Government
• extremism on migration, race, and gender
• hostility towards those who hold traditional American views on family, religion, and morality.

The Justice Department, the FBI, the Department of Homeland Security, other security agencies, and the Treasury Department are all corralled to participate in a national strategy to “disrupt” any individuals or groups “that foment political violence” — even “before they result in any violent political acts.”

In other words, it’s a return to the days of the Red Scare, when committing an actual crime wasn’t a necessity for arresting and indicting people. Back then, “conspiring to advocate” the overthrow of the government was the charge used to lock Communists and labor activists in prison, to bankrupt progressive coalitions and organizations, and to justify establishing concentration camps for political dissidents.

NSPM-7 revives the repressive and anti-democratic aspects of laws like the Smith Act (1940), the Taft-Hartley Act (1947), the McCarran Act (1950), and the Communist Control Act (1954), setting the stage for sweeping attacks on the rights of free speech, assembly, and association found in the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Having ideas or beliefs different from those in power has become enough to count as “fomenting” violent acts.

The JTTFs are authorized to investigate any individuals, organizations, non-profit groups, or “funders” that are determined by the Trump administration to be “responsible for, sponsor, or otherwise aid and abet the principal actors engaging in criminal conduct.” Monitoring and tracking political activity, speech, social media posts, donations, and more are to be the investigative tools of choice.

NSPM-7, together with Trump’s Sept. 23 Executive Order designating the amorphous “antifa” trend as a terrorist organization, seeks to criminalize dissent while writing an upside-down narrative about “radical left violence” at a time when research shows political violence over the last several years to be overwhelmingly a phenomenon of the white supremacist and fascist far-right.

This is not about battling violence or stopping terrorism; it’s about outlawing dissent and instilling fear. Seventy-five years ago, these kinds of efforts fractured the militant U.S. labor movement, put a chill on the forces fighting for peace, and drove an anti-communist wedge into the broad people’s front coalition that had won the New Deal and defeated Hitler.

For anyone who thought warnings about Trump’s re-election opening the door to fascism in the United States were overblown, each new day is providing a corrective to that mistaken notion.

When McCarthyite persecution of the left was at its height in the middle of the last century, the Communist Party USA issued an open letter to the nation, in which its leaders said: “We say to all our fellow Americans, irrespective of political faith: The bell tolls not just for the Communists alone, but for the hard-won rights of all Americans. All must act together to save American constitutional liberties.”

That same bell tolls once again.

Image: Smith Act defendants at Foley Square (CPUSA Facebook)