The most recent expression of Republican determination to criminalize people for not being Republicans is their current assault on those non-Republicans’ right to demonstrate. As has been widely reported, Republican state legislatures are busy enacting new laws that make criminally liable anyone participating in a mass action where as few as one person does more than look sideways at a cop. A bill in Florida also makes a city’s decision to reallocate funds from its police department to social services subject to state override. A bill in Minnesota would make any participant in a demonstration the cops declare to be unlawful ineligible for student loans. And a new law in Oklahoma grants immunity to any driver whose car runs down demonstrators in a street.

Clearly, the Republican assault on the First Amendment is a part of the story they’re telling their base: that Black Lives Matter and kindred demonstrations are a threat to "civilization"—by which term the GOP means "white supremacy."

By extending liability to anyone in a mass demonstration when a bare handful of demonstrators test or exceed a law’s limits, however, Republicans may appear to be inadvertently and retrospectively expanding the sphere of culpability for the January 6th Capitol insurrection. Had their standards been in place that day, the entire crowd that heard President Trump’s harangue could be indicted for felonies, as could, well, Trump himself. Lest their current spate of legislation be misconstrued as incriminating pro-Trump demonstrators, there’s a simple solution: Just add an amendment saying that Republican, pro-Trump, or white racist demonstrators—like the drivers who plow their cars into peaceful Black Lives Matter advocates—will be granted immunity from any prosecution. That would clear that up.