ARGUMENT: DEMOCRACY CHALLENGESSecuring U.S. Democracy
Most of the homeland security architecture built in the past twenty years has been devoted to protecting Americans from an act of international terrorism. Carrie Cordero writes that as a result, Americans are safer than they were twenty years ago from a terrorist attack directed or inspired by foreign groups on U.S. soil. She says, though, that more significantly, the threats to American safety and security have compounded in the past two decades. “These disparate threats and circumstances have challenged the effectiveness of the homeland security enterprise.”
Most of the homeland security architecture built in the past twenty years has been devoted to protecting Americans from an act of international terrorism. Carrie Cordero writes in Lawfare that as a result, Americans are safer than they were twenty years ago from a terrorist attack directed or inspired by foreign groups on U.S. soil.
She says, though, that more significantly, the threats to American safety and security have compounded in the past two decades. “Cyberattacks, wildfires, domestic violent extremism, drug addiction, pervasive gun violence, and now a pandemic have affected Americans all across the country. And these disparate threats and circumstances have challenged the effectiveness of the homeland security enterprise.”
She offers some examples:
· The coronavirus has killed more than 790,000 Americans since March 2020, an unfathomable, devastating national loss. While early deaths were likely unavoidable, many thousands of the deaths that occurred following the wide availability of free vaccines in early 2021 likely could have been avoided.
· Americans are being gunned down at a shocking rate. They are killed at the grocery store. They are killed in high school. They are killed at dance clubs. They are killed at outdoor concerts. They are killed in movie theaters. They are killed while jogging. They are killed in elementary school.
· American politicians and government officials are being threatened with violence at an alarming rate. From members of Congress to state legislators to local poll workers—many officials are victims of threats of violence and, in some cases, actual coordinated plots to harm them. A mob stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, and several participants were seeking out the most senior leaders of the government for attack. Members of Congress are increasingly at risk of violence for how they might vote on an issue.
· Natural disasters spurred by a changing climate are drowning city dwellers in their basements and rural neighbors in their homes. Fires are wiping out western towns. Just this weekend, tornadoes tore through the midwest, destroying lives, livelihoods and entire towns.
· Americans are also killing themselves quietly. More than 100,000 people overdosed on drugs this year, fueled by fentanyl and other opioids.
She writes that “It is impossible to prevent or end all of these dangers, but with the United States’ plentiful resources, well-developed homeland security institutions, and expansive capabilities, the U.S. should be able to manage these challenges better without American citizens living in a constant state of crisis.”
Cordero writes that there is a special need for greater attention to safety and security as a component of shoring up the U.S. stressed-out democracy. She makes three recommendations:
First, at the federal level, it’s time for Congress to update the statutory mission of the Department of Homeland Security. In order for the Biden administration and future administrations to effectively develop strategic plans for the homeland security enterprise, they need to be freed of the tether to the early-21st-century menace of international terrorism.
[Second], from the federal government to local police departments, the U.S. needs to address the growth of domestic violent extremism. The Biden administration’s first-ever National Strategy for Countering Domestic Terrorism is a start. But countering the threats posed by domestic terrorists includes the hard work of rooting out extremism from the military, veteran and law enforcement communities.
[Third], the U.S. should devote attention and work toward bolstering collaboration and safety among federal, state and local government partners to facilitate homeland security activities that are based on expertise and are bipartisan, to the extent possible. The experience of the 2020 election demonstrated how important it was to the continuity of the electoral process that there were credible, bipartisan messengers who provided accurate information about the conduct and cybersecurity of election infrastructure and systems. Without both bipartisan engagement and nonpartisan expert election officials, harmful and false domestic political rhetoric and misinformation could have prevailed. It is vital that state and local officials who are experts in areas such as elections—and also public health, emergency response and public safety—are supported, protected, valued and amplified.
