It is a secular humanist’s dream to live in a world where no country on Earth required a military to protect its citizens from invasion, but like most Utopian fantasies, such a world will never exist. As the leader of the free world, America has built up a huge military to protect the nation’s interests, its allies, and its way of life for its people. After the terror attacks on September 11, 2001, despite the senseless invasion of two Islamic countries, the nation is still engaged in a war to combat global terrorism to prevent Islamic extremists from planning and launching attacks on Americans at home and the nation’s interests abroad. The war on terror focuses on groups loosely affiliated with the Al Qaeda terrorist network, but it turns out that Islamic extremists do not pose the greatest threat to America according to a 2009 report by the Department of Homeland Security. The biggest threat to America, its people, and government is from domestic right-wing extremist groups that fall under the purview of the Republican Party that gives unwavering legislative support to their affiliates in religious, racist, and anti-government extremist movements.

The 2009 Homeland Security report cited the Republican Great Recession and resulting economic climate, along with the election of an African American man as President, as the primary drivers fueling the resurgence of domestic anti-American terror groups. At the time, the DHS-commissioned report drew special attention to the fact that “extremist right-wing groups posed more of a threat than Islamic extremists,” and Republicans objected loudly prompting Secretary Janet Napolitano to withdraw that report because as Americans have come to realize, Republicans cannot handle the truth. However, a new study from West Point’s Combatting Terrorism Center evaluates the risks from domestic terror groups titled “Challengers from the Sidelines: Understanding America’s Violent Far-Right,” that isolated three categories that represent the John Birch iteration and anti-American sentiment inherent in the Republican Party.