United we stood. Today, as we approach the 25th anniversary of Sept. 11, the centrifugal forces tearing apart our civic and political fabric reflect a tragic irony: We are doing to ourselves what al Qaeda could only dream of doing itself.
Following the 9/11 attacks, al Qaeda hoped a terrorized, divided, and indebted United States would lose the political will required to pursue its strategic interests in the Middle East. Al Qaeda did not fulfill its deadliest post-Sept. 11 ambitions. Today, we can be proud of the exceptional job we have done defending ourselves against external threats for the past 25 years.
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But we have lost sight of what must be protected here at home, and from whom. We the people have met another enemy. It is us.
In the aftermath of Sept. 11, 79% of the public routinely displayed the flag according to the Pew Research Center. By the time we celebrated the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, Gallup found that number had dwindled to 43%. Today, Republicans are far more likely to display the flag than Democrats, and Democrats are far more likely to view the flag as divisive than Republicans.
The ties that bind are fraying.
Pride in America is evaporating. For years after 9/11, roughly 70% of Americans were “extremely proud” of their country. Today, that number is just 33% — the lowest level ever recorded in Gallup’s polling.
Civic engagement is also plummeting. The “exhausted majority” is withdrawing from the public square because it has been taken over by extremists who crowd out and cancel alternate voices. Rather than reduce tensions, the two political parties deliberately stoke discord. According to Pew, most Democrats and Republicans view members of the other party as “immoral, dishonest, close-minded, and unintelligent.” On Sept. 11, we loved our neighbors. Now, incivility is the norm.
Other historical norms are literally under siege. We have witnessed a riot at the U.S. Capitol. We have watched indiscriminate interior immigration enforcement operations lead to the deaths of U.S. citizens and tear apart families and communities. We have allowed both political parties to suppress speech and intimidate their political opponents. Al Qaeda sought to manufacture a house divided against itself. We have done it all by ourselves.
With the coarsening of civic and political culture, it is not surprising that murders involving a firearm have nearly doubled since 2001, with hundreds of shootings occurring in our places of worship, schools, political and civic gatherings, and symbolic spaces. What was once rare and nearly unthinkable has become commonplace. Al Qaeda could only dream of routinely murdering Americans where they come together as a community. We have made that dream a reality.
When announcing the killing of Osama Bin Laden in 2011, Former President Barack Obama reflected on another disturbing reality that the “unity that prevailed on 9/11” had already, “at times, been frayed.” He warned the country that “we must remain vigilant at home” and be “true to the values that make us who we are.”
We did not listen. At colleges nationwide, in increasingly mainstream media outlets, and at the fringes of both political parties, we now face the daunting challenges of trying to eliminate the scourge of antisemitism and correct the anti-historical, oppressor-oppressed prism through which many of our politically active and purportedly well-educated young people now see the world.
Hamas murdered 46 Americans on Oct. 7, 2023. Public reactions to this terrorist attack showcased our ignorance and declining values. For months, we could not avoid news or social media footage of ostensibly pro-Palestinian rallies where people chanted “from the river to the sea” and praised the philosophy and actions of Hamas. Al Qaeda sought to fool us with propaganda rooted in antisemitism and pseudohistory. We have bought the lie and made fools of ourselves from sea to shining sea.
Members of Congress, meanwhile, remain full of sound and fury but do nothing. They lack the political will, seriousness of purpose, and fiscal discipline required to solve our biggest problems. We are no longer the nation that enacted bipartisan immigration reform in 1986, won the Cold War in 1989, balanced the budget in 1998, and resolved to destroy al Qaeda on Sept. 11, 2001. We are a pale imitation of our former political selves.
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Our disunity and dysfunction during the pandemic demonstrated this in neon. So rather than hope that our response to the next national crisis will reverse our civic and political decline, we must start doing the yeoman’s work required to restore civility and civic engagement, reduce violence, challenge ignorance and antisemitism, and elect serious people who understand their job is to “promote the general welfare.”
We can start by making Sept. 11 the day that “we the people” remember and reaffirm our shared commitment to the American project and to forming a more perfect union.
Brian C. Goebel is an adjunct professor at Pepperdine University School of Public Policy. He served as the Counselor and Senior Policy Advisor to Robert Bonner, Commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection (2001-04) and is currently an elected official in Santa Barbara, California.