Stephen Miller, terrorist

The Center for Strategic and International Studies recently analyzed 750 domestic attacks and plots by nonstate actors from January 1994 to early July 2025. The Center defined the acts as terroristic attempts "to achieve a political end and exert a psychological influence on a broad population."

CSIS distinguished anti-government extremism — "violence aimed at state institutions viewed as illegitimate or oppressive" — from partisan extremism — the targeting of "specific political figures or individuals."

Though White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller is a state actor, he is otherwise undifferentiated from partisan extremists gunning for opponents and terroristic schemers wishing to effect a psychological influence on American citizens. We needn't speculate about this. He puts it in writing:

"The issue before is [sic] now is very simple and clear. There is a large and growing movement of leftwing terrorism in this country. It is well organized and funded. And it is shielded by far-left Democrat judges, prosecutors and attorneys general. The only remedy is to use legitimate state power to dismantle terrorism and terror networks." —posted on X, Oct. 4th.

Miller's psychological manipulations are simplicity and clarity. In his screed there is no doubt that left-wing terrorism is a sprawling threat to the American public. Also doubtless is that leftist terrorism is thriving under the protection of officials either appointed by Democratic politicians or elected by "far-left" Democrats. Solution: officialdom and its supporters' elimination by a police state — "the only remedy."

Like most fanatics and all manipulators, Miller wrongs the facts and distorts reality. CSIS found that although left-wing terrorism has risen in recent years, its levels are "very low" and they remain "much lower than historical levels of violence carried out by right-wing and jihadist attackers." As for what Miller calls the left's "movement," it's "disorganized, with little formal coordination," reported CSIS.

As the White House's deputy chief of staff for rank subterfuge, Miller neglects specifics. CSIS did not. It noted that the last 10 years saw 36 attacks by the left, killing 13 people; on the right there were 152 attacks, killing 112 people. (Going back to 1994-2000, "violence on the left accounted for four plots and attacks ... compared with 144 on the right." That too from CSIS.)

It could be that, rather than spewing deliberate deceit, Stephen Miller believes his own lies with an intensity enabling him to casually dismiss inconvenient facts and irrepressible reality. After all, to watch him being interviewed is a frightening adventure in what seems homicidal convictions. So I lean to Miller's "simple and clear": He's a partisan guttersnipe rivaling Goebbels, his soulless corruption mirrors Himmler, and if all goes well, he'll end up like Joe and Heinrich.

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Cross-posted in Substack.