Karen Bass isn’t some far-left loon in the activist community. No, she’s the California Speaker of the Assembly and third-term Assemblyman from the 47th district. So you can imagine the shock when someone in her position would compare free speech — on of the tenants of our republic — to terrorism.

How do you think conservative talk radio has affected the Legislature’s work?

The Republicans were essentially threatened and terrorized against voting for revenue. Now [some] are facing recalls. They operate under a terrorist threat: “You vote for revenue and your career is over.” I don’t know why we allow that kind of terrorism to exist. I guess it’s about free speech, but it’s extremely unfair.

So she actually acknowledges that talk radio hosts are guaranteed free speech, yet compares what they do to terrorism anyway. Charming,

And what’s this complaining about, “You vote for revenue and your career is over.” Hello? You’re an elected politician accountable to the people. If you don’t perform as they expect or fail to represent their values, you get thrown out of office. That’s kind of the whole point about democracy. Their promise of voting against you if you approve things they don’t want is now terrorism?

Clearly Ms. Bass doesn’t have a clear understanding what real terrorism is, or she wouldn’t be equating it with Americans exercising their rights to free speech. I like Ed Morrissey’s suggestion: Perhaps she should embed with our soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan to gain a clear picture of what real terrorism entails. It’s certainly not citizens promising to utilize their constitutionally-protected rights.