One generation ago, Americans united in grief and anger after Arab terror struck our homeland. I remember 9-11 as if it were yesterday; Congress uniting on the Capitol steps, the President vowing justice amid the rubble, the US press reporting facts to the nation without partisan spin, and the brave response of patriots on UAL 93, who refused to have Arab sand kicked in their American faces. The US was stronger then, when terrorists left 2,977 dead. Today – not so much.
America is falling apart in 2020, in large part, because leftist governors, mayors, and press have politicized a pandemic and fatal police shootings of black suspects. Sorely missing today is context; invited by victory-at-all-cost politicians and a misinformed populace (partisan news and perfidious social media). Of course, these are hard times. But, in the context of 2001, are these the worst of times?
Good news: the Middle East is getting better. I remember my late mother asking after 9-11, “why do they hate us so much?” Turns out, THEY don’t, but a few hawkish Muslim leaders (Hussein, Khatami and Omar) decoded “peace dividend” to mean Bill Do-Nothing Clinton and opted to abet Al Qaeda. 6,729 dead soldiers and $6.5 trillion later, America is tired of regime-change wars, peace deals are sprouting up in Islam, and nobody knows Trump’s secret.
Joe Biden claims President Trump is “accidentally” having Middle East success – who cares? In the last 43 months, the Arab League said “no” to Palestine’s request to diss the UAE-Israel peace deal, Mr. Baghdadi and ISIL are no more, embassies are moving to Jerusalem and Israel has normalized relations with Bahrain, Chad, Serbia and the UAE, and Iran’s economy and Mr. Soleimani are dead. Don’t look now, but America is marching the Middle East toward peace in our lifetime. Well played, America!
Good news: COVID has exposed Democrat-led cities and states. New Yorkers did not flee after 9-11 because Republican Rudy Giuliani was calm and competent. This March, COVID-19 sent 525,000 residents packing, because of Democrat Bill De Blasio’s incompetence. That’s why 160 CEOs wrote begging him to crack down on crime and sanitation. They know their best customers and employees are leaving town – mostly to red states like Florida – and similar pity parties are in blue cities nationwide.
Moving data proves blue-city (Chicago) and blue-state (California) residents are leaving to low tax-and-regulation states like Texas. As a political matter, this is good for the GOP. As center-right business and property owners leave, they rob blue states of House seats and electoral votes; thereby boosting center-right power. The Right Flight leaves blue states poorer and red states richer, meaning the Great Day of Fiscal Reckoning is coming to Democrat-run cities and states – and there will be no bail-out!
Good news: riots have made law and order an issue. Before George Floyd’s death, policing was a “don’t ask don’t tell” issue for most Americans; allowing progressives to control the narrative (systemic racism) and police unions to hide their heads in the sand. Finally, anti-cop propaganda and police unions are under scrutiny, teaching voters that figures lie and liars figure. The truth will out.
In an average year, cops kill more whites (409) than blacks and Latinos combined (384). And so, propagandists use the rate of police killings per million; the only metric that awards blacks most aggrieved victim status (see chart below).
| Race | Population – Deaths | Deaths Per Million |
| Black | 39,000,000 – 222 | 32 |
| Hispanic | 57,000,000 – 162 | 24 |
| Caucasian | 197,000,000 – 409 | 13 |
These numbers portray black Americans suffering disproportionately from police killings. Except only 2.7% of Americans are confronted by armed police (2-year average of total arrests is 8.8 million), whites comprise 62% (5,472,000) of those arrests – compared to blacks 24.6% (2,168,000) and Latinos 13.5% (1,1891,000) and 98% of police-suspect encounters are responses to 911 calls. This suggests a better measure of racial bias would be the rate of police killings per arrest (see chart below):
| Race | Arrests – Deaths | Deaths Per Million |
| Black | 2,168,000 – 222 | 10 |
| Hispanic | 1,191,000 – 162 | 13 |
| Caucasian | 5,472,000 – 409 | 7.4 |
The rate of police killings per black arrest is lower than the Hispanic rate and not “three times the rate” for whites. While these numbers don’t erase what happened to George Floyd or prove there are no racist cops, they do question whether white privilege in the application of the law is systemic. And with all political issues, the truth must out.
Since 9-11, America has grown less united and more cynical. Politicians see tragedy as political opportunity and can’t credit the other side. Aggrieved identities propagandize and taunt. Everyday people are angry and un-sympathetic. Ben Franklin was prescient. When asked what kind of nation had been created in Philadelphia, he answered, “A Republic, if you can keep it.”