At least according to the Department of Defense, which has been training its personnel that even peaceful protest is a terrorist activity:
Among the multiple-choice questions included in its Level 1 Antiterrorism Awareness training course, the DoD asks the following: "Which of the following is an example of low-level terrorist activity?" To answer correctly, the examinee must select "protests."
It seems that whoever formulated this test for the Pentagon is not familiar with a very important part of a very important document:
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
This training of military personnel to treat protests as al-Qaeda-lite seems to go along in the pattern of the government tightening controls over our rights, from the Patriot Act, to "enemy combatants" being held without charges or trials, to warrantless government wiretapping with zero consequences. Now protesting, exercising one's First Amendment rights to disagree with the government, is terrorism. And make no mistake, there is an enormous body of laws that is used to prosecute terrorists. If it even gets to court. I have a feeling that in the event that the DoD was in a position where it would have to deal with protesters, they would be much more willing to use violent force against "terrorists" than citizens.
The ACLU, as usual, is at the forefront of fighting the Department of Defense to preserve our rights:
"Teaching employees that dissent on issues of public concern is something to be feared, rather than respected, is a dangerously counterproductive use of scarce security resources, making us less safe and less democratic," said Michael German, ACLU National Security Policy Counsel and former FBI Special Agent, who co-signed the letter with Brick.
We need to stand up for our rights and liberties, even when our guy is in charge. Former-President George W. Bush (under the guidance/orders of Vice-President Dick Cheney) increased the power of the executive branch to a dangerous level, and from history we know that a new President is loathe to voluntarily give any powers won by a previous administration. So we must be vigilant, support the ACLU in their efforts to protect our liberties, and make it known that peaceful protesting is not terrorism, it is American.