Twenty-four years ago, I was just a college senior in Hartford, Connecticut, when the world changed forever. The images from that Tuesday morning are seared into my memory—not just the unspeakable horror of watching those towers collapse, but something remarkable that followed in the days and weeks after. Something we haven’t witnessed since and may never see again.
For one brief, extraordinary moment, America rediscovered its soul. In the aftermath of unimaginable tragedy, we remembered what it truly meant to be American—not the watered-down, politically correct version we’re fed today, but the real thing. We stood together, flags flew proudly from every porch, and partisan differences seemed suddenly insignificant compared to the bonds that unite us as Americans.
That unity feels like ancient history now, doesn’t it?
The contentious 2000 election had left us bitterly divided, with hanging chads and Supreme Court decisions dominating the national conversation. Then came September 11th, and suddenly none of that mattered. Republicans and Democrats stood together singing "God Bless America."
The bitter partisanship of that election just melted away. As President Bush said in his radio address just days after the attacks, "A terrorist attack designed to tear us apart has instead bound us together as a nation."
That unity was real, and it was amazing. Americans of every stripe recognized we faced a common enemy—not each other, but those who sought to destroy our way of life. We treated each other as neighbors and fellow citizens rather than political adversaries. For once, being American mattered more than being Republican or Democrat.
But it didn't last.
The cracks began showing during debates over the Iraq War, and widened during the heated 2004 election, and have only gotten worse with each passing year.
And then Barack Obama became president.
Instead of bringing Americans together, Obama pushed his party further left while his administration systematically targeted conservative individuals and groups through the IRS. They spied on Donald Trump's campaign and tried to frame him with fabricated Russian collusion allegations that consumed years of his presidency.
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When COVID hit, Democrats shamelessly blamed Trump for a global pandemic as if he personally created the virus in a laboratory. The weaponization of government that began under Obama resumed with a vengeance under Joe Biden, who made targeting conservatives his administration's primary mission. From his inflammatory Independence Hall speech painting Trump and his supporters as a "clear and present danger” to our democracy, to the unprecedented raid on Trump’s home, Biden systematically destroyed whatever remained of American civility and respect for democratic norms.
The rhetoric escalated until it became inevitable that someone would act on it. Two assassination attempts against Trump last year should have been a wake-up call, but instead the inflammatory language continued. Yesterday, the rhetoric claimed its next victim when someone gunned down Charlie Kirk while he was speaking at Utah Valley University, assassinating him in broad daylight because he was a conservative voice on a college campus daring to have conversations.
Barack Obama and Joe Biden succeeded where Al Qaeda failed. They tore this nation apart from within, destroying the soul of America through deliberate division and the weaponization of federal agencies against their political opponents. The unity we experienced after 9/11 now seems like a fairy tale from a different era. If I hadn’t witnessed that unity myself, I wouldn’t believe it actually happened. And the fallout has been a disaster. Today, conservatives cannot even engage in basic conversation or debate without fearing for their safety. The left has made political violence not just acceptable, but inevitable.
Biden's Independence Hall speech seems to have been the moment that permanently shattered any pretense of national unity. Standing before that blood-red backdrop, flanked by Marines, he declared war on half the country. The message was clear: disagree with the Left’s agenda and become an enemy of the state.
The country that came together after 9/11 was truly broken.
As we observe this solemn September 11th anniversary, we must confront a harsh truth. The terrorists who struck the Twin Towers could never have imagined that their greatest triumph would come not from further attacks, but from the American Left finishing the work for them. The unity that once defined post-9/11 America has been destroyed by those who claimed to protect it. The Left learned nothing from that day—except how to perfect the art of destroying our country from within.
