Where is America’s 9/11 spirit?

Stark was the contrast between the selfless heroism and unity of purpose on and in the aftermath of September 11, 2001, and the nation’s reaction to the events of September 10, 2025.

In abundantly obvious respects, the two days differed. Conservative activist Charlie Kirk, his wife, their two children, and the rest of his loved ones were the only immediate victims of his assassination on September 10.

In contrast, Osama bin Laden’s hell-bound errand boys murdered nearly 3,000 Americans, saddled thousands more with diseases that later claimed their lives, and altered New York City’s skyline forever on September 11. America went to war afterwards.

But the two tragedies, though they varied in scale, shared one key similarity that a disturbingly small proportion of the country has acknowledged: they both represented attacks on the very idea of the United States as a tolerant, pluralistic democracy whose citizens enjoy freedoms unknown to most of human history – including, and perhaps most importantly, the freedom to disagree.

Kirk traveled to college campuses to try to persuade young men and women to adopt his worldview. For that crime, a madman sentenced him to death.

The correct reaction to this horrifying act of vigilante injustice was modeled on the far-left by Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, who delivered a masterclass in how to honor his political opponents – and their shared country – in an admirably unqualified manner.

“I want to say a few words regarding the terrible murder yesterday of Charlie Kirk, someone who I strongly disagreed with on almost every issue, but who was clearly a very smart and effective communicator and organizer, and someone unafraid to get out into the world and engage the public,” began Sanders. “Freedom and democracy is not about political violence. It is not about assassinating public officials. It is not about trying to intimidate people who speak out on an issue. Political violence, in fact, is political cowardice. It means that you cannot convince people of the correctness of your ideas, and you have to impose them through force.”

There was no “But” in Sanders’s condemnation of Kirk’s assassination, no self-righteous enumeration of his countless – and doubtlessly vehement – disagreements with Kirk, and no attempt to put political points on the board. Only a sincere expression of condolences and articulation of unifying principles. All was as it should be.

Sadly, Sanders’s words were made all the more moving by their loneliness. To be sure, an overwhelming majority of public figures, including on the left, condemned Kirk’s murder. But far fewer reckoned with the gravity of what happened in Utah last Wednesday, or responded to it with the gravitas the crisis demands.

While the “rats” – vocal ghouls who celebrated the murder of an innocent countryman – are not a critical mass of Democratic voters, or activists, or even congressmen, that is not to excuse the behavior of some particularly shameful members of the party. Though they may not have popped any champagne after Kirk’s death, they betrayed their apathy toward it in other ways.

The day after Kirk fell, Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) joined Mehdi Hasan for a session in which they – among other indignities – mocked the self-evident truth that Kirk believed in the power of civil debate. Reps. Dave Min (D-CA) and Eric Swalwell (D-CA), meanwhile, glibly attempted to make a political profit off of Kirk’s murder by misleading the public about the perpetrator.

“Now that the Charlie Kirk assassin has been identified as MAGA, I’m sure Donald Trump, Elon Musk and all the insane GOP politicians who called for retribution against the ‘RADICAL LEFT’ will now shift their focus to stopping the toxic violence of the RADICAL RIGHT,” mused Min.

“It doesn’t matter that Kirk’s killer was a straight white male. Or that he was from a Republican family that voted for Donald Trump. Violence has NEVER been the answer,” submitted Swalwell.

Let the reader understand: authorities have identified the alleged shooter as a man “deeply indoctrinated with leftist ideology” whose partner was transgender. Kirk was shot while discussing the phenomenon of transgender mass shooters.

While for understandable, if not entirely laudable reasons, some on the right have called for a figurative war effort in the wake of Kirk’s assassination. “Y’all caused this!” shouted Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-FL) at her Democratic colleagues following a moment of silence for Kirk on the House floor.

It all amounts to a scathing self-critique of not the right or the left, but of a society so self-indulgent and siloed that hardly anyone inside of it can subordinate the interests of their faction after a national tragedy – not even for a week – to those of the wider country, or even to memorializing the man who died.

Twenty-four years ago, Americans came together to face a common enemy. Today, they’re coming together on opposing sides of a battlefield, tragically convinced that their enemies have lived next door all along.