National Unity 9/12/11

Remember 10 years ago when the response to the 9/11 attacks resulted in tremendous national unity? Suddenly everyone was proud to be American. There were flags everywhere, even on the lapels of liberal politicians. Our national leaders gathered to sing patriotic and religious songs on the steps of the U.S. Capitol building. I’m told they even prayed together. George Bush’s approval rating was at 90%. We were committed to tracking down—and killing—those who had hurt us so badly. Military action was approved by both parties. There was a swelling in church attendance and military enlistment across the nation. It became socially acceptable to use the word “God” as something other than profanity. James Carvel cancelled his coordinated news media attack on the Bush presidency, and the “blame America first” crowd went into hiding.

In short, everyone was suddenly behaving like … Republicans.
Why is that? Why did this single horrific event change so dramatically the behavior of liberals?

The answer is that for the first time in a long time, the liberal belief system had been penetrated by … reality. They had experienced a head-on collision with the way things actually are, with the unbridled evil of which people are capable, and it was so terrible and so dramatic that even those who rationalize cutting up babies and who promote sodomy to schoolchildren couldn’t deny the reality of it. And in a single day, it turned them into Republicans. It would obviously not last, for America’s TV generations have lost the capacity to remember anything for very long, but I had hoped it would last longer than it did. Eventually liberals were able to push 9/11 from their minds and return to spewing venom and hatred at the people—like George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, and Don Rumsfeld, and the entire U.S. Military—who sacrifice and die to keep them safe.

There’s been a lot of talk about national unity in the past week, as if it evaporated while we weren’t looking and no one can figure out where it went. But the reality is this: Republicans haven’t changed. America became unified when Democrats, for a time, gave up the rage, lying, and name calling that are the only tactics available to people who cannot win arguments based on facts and results. We returned to division when liberals forgot their unpleasant encounter with reality and went back to a belief system that is invincibly grounded on the way things aren’t.