All of us who were old enough 22 years ago today remember exactly where we were when we first heard that a plane had crashed into the World Trade Center—or whatever the first thing we heard about the attack on United States. The level of the attack on our nation by jihadist terrorists was horrifying and, well, terrifying, which was exactly what its perpetrators intended. The attack was immediately and understandably compared with Pearl Harbor.
The president at the time, George W. Bush, was initially flustered, but regained his footing. The nation rallied around him. His approval rating shot up to above 90 percent. Partisanship was put on hold. Most of the world rose to support the United States and the nation had more goodwill than at any time since World War II.
(Listening to Vice President Dick Cheney and other advisors who told him that the attack provided an opportunity to get rid of Saddam Hussein, a totally evil but secular man whom Osama bin Laden loathed and who had absolutely nothing to do with al-Qaeda or the attack, Mr. Bush threw away all that goodwill by launching a war of choice against Iraq. But that’s another story.)
Americans came together. Almost everyone agreed that the man behind the attacks must be pursued and brought to justice. Whatever measures were necessary to protect against similar attacks must be taken. One result was the creation of the Orwellian-named “Department of Homeland Security.”
Had the fourth plane not been diverted by the extraordinary bravery of the passengers on Flight 93, it almost certainly would have crashed into the United States Capitol. Had the Capitol been hit, the attack would have been even more devastating.
Viewed dispassionately—which is extremely difficult to do since our natural reaction to such atrocities is highly passionate—such terrorist attacks posed no lethal threat to the American Republic. That is not at all to downplay the significance of September 11. It is, rather, to say that external attacks by non-state actors without armies, air forces, and large arsenals of weapons of mass destruction could not destroy our nation.
Yet, as Steven Pinker noted in his 2018 book, Enlightenment Now: The Case for Reason, Science, Humanism, and Progress, a majority of Americans in 2016 saw terrorism as the greatest threat to the nation and believed ISIS posed “a threat to the existence or survival of the United States.”
This Time, “The Call Is Coming from Inside the House”
Nearly twenty years after Flight 93 was prevented from smashing into the seat of American democracy, another group of terrorists succeeded in attacking the Capitol. They came much closer to ending the American Republic than the Saudi-based group had in 2001. And the threat remains.
Rather than uniting the American people, as the 9/11 attack had, the 1/6 attack has torn the nation apart and its perpetrators remain a clear and present danger to the survival of the American Republic.
Incredibly, millions of Americans have been convinced that those who tried to overturn the results of a free and fair election, prevent the peaceful transfer of power—the bedrock of our system of self-government—and place an unelected authoritarian ruler in control of the nation are patriots who should be supported.
The leader of this attempted seditious coup is the overwhelming favorite to be the nominee of one of the two major political parties for president next year. He calls the terrorists who attacked the United States at his behest heroes, patriots, and political prisoners. He promises to pardon most of them if he regains power. He talks of terminating the Constitution and aggregating all governmental power to himself.
And what did that man who now seeks to destroy America from the inside think on September 11, 2001? While he later claimed, entirely falsely, that he saw “thousands and thousands” of Muslims in Jersey City celebrating the attacks, here’s his actual reaction to 9/11: “Forty Wall Street [his building in Lower Manhattan] actually was the second-tallest building in downtown Manhattan, and it was, actually, before the World Trade Center, was the tallest. And then when they built the World Trade Center, it became known as the second-tallest, and now it’s the tallest.”
Let that sink in: On the day of the worst attack on the United States since Pearl Harbor, the first thought of a man who was “elected” (sort of) president of the United States in 2016 was about how it made his building the tallest again. Small wonder that he later launched his own attack on the United States.
The authoritarian rightwing extremists inside the United States today pose a threat to our way of life vastly greater than external terrorists ever have. Most of those who support the extremists who have taken over the “Republican” party are decent people who have been deluded into thinking that the leaders of this ultimately anti-1776 movement are patriots who are on their side. That’s the way authoritarians have gained power in other nations and at other times. In fact, they constitute the gravest threat to the survival of the American Republic we have faced since the Enslavers’ Rebellion in the 1860s.
The legal system is holding the would-be dictator to account, but it is up to the voters to defeat this massive internal threat to our democracy.
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