Former President Bill Clinton has warned in speeches and in a New York Times op-ed commemorating the April 19, 1995, Oklahoma City terrorist bombing that “there is a big difference between criticizing a policy or a politician and demonizing the government that guarantees our freedoms and the public servants who enforce our laws.” Clinton even defined “demonizing the government” by pointing out that the Oklahoma City bombers were motivated by “the belief that the greatest threat to American freedom is our government, and that public servants do not protect our freedoms, but abuse them.” Sound like any group you’ve heard about recently?

Just as he did in 1995, Clinton is again peddling the argument that a new wave of domestic terrorism is coming this time because millions of Tea Partying Americans have during the past year or more taken to the streets to protest, often loudly, many of the policies advanced by President Obama, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, and the Democratic majority in Congress. What Clinton neglects to say, however, is that criticism of Obamacare, the economic stimulus program, corruption in Congress, out-of-control federal spending, and an exploding national debt is widely shared among moderates, independents, and conservatives, among many Democrats as well as Republicans. That is why recent public opinion surveys found that 80 percent of Americans no longer trust their government, while majorities nearly as big say their congressmen don’t deserve to be re-elected, and disapproval of the president’s job performance is headed toward the 60 percent mark.