Sounds the Alarm on Anti-Americanism 25 Years After 9/11

0:00 Speaker 1 Well, with us today is Jesse Arm, and he is the Executive Vice President of the Manhattan Institute on Communications and Government Affairs. Well, Jesse, 9-11 weekend. Were you there at 9-11?

0:13 Speaker 2 I was young, John, but I was there. I remember it well.

0:19 Speaker 3 I remember being pulled out of school. And 25 years after, it sometimes feels like a lot of other folks don’t remember it, right? We have forgotten this fundamental moral clarity that those terror attacks once gave us, that there was this real distinction between America and our enemies who want to destroy us and our civilization and all that we

0:45 care about, and that our country and that its values were something worth defending. And increasingly, I do feel like we have parts of our politics, parts of the progressive left in particular, that are treating terrorism not so much as evidence of the terrorists’ depravity, but as some kind of evidence of our own guilt. And I think that’s

1:11 really sick.

1:13 Speaker 1 Well, you know, you’re right. I just had that discussion with somebody else this 9-11 weekend, and you know what I said to him? Vice President Pence was in my office a few weeks ago, and you know what he said?

1:25 Maybe the Republicans have a few problems. Maybe they’ve strayed a little bit. But the Democrats now are run by the Democratic Socialist Party, and they have completely lost their mind.

1:39 Speaker 3 There is genuine anti-Americanism that pulses through the Democratic Socialist worldview and ethos.

1:47 Speaker 2 It is core to who they are. This third world isn’t right.

1:51 Speaker 3 It’s not anymore the Democratic Party is not dominated by.

1:55 Speaker 2 the politics of the black church.

1:57 Speaker 3 It’s more this politics of the campus encampment, this idea that Western civilization needs to be torn down, which was the mantra of this woman who’s going to be a new Congresswoman. Her group, Daria Eliza Chevalier, who was involved in these Columbia encampments and everything, she was literally working to tear down Western civilization, in her own words.

2:20 Speaker 2 What is this?

2:21 Speaker 3 It’s a sickness. And And the logic is that now if someone commits some kind of atrocity against America or our friends in Israel, we have something terrible that we must have done to provoke that.

2:37 Speaker 2 And that is like, it’s sick.

2:39 Speaker 3 It’s the more barbaric the attack, the deeper our supposed guilt is. That is how the America Deserves 9-11 sentiment, which is out there being proffered by this sicko, Hassan Piker, who is the new kingmaker in the Democratic Party, that is how this idea that we deserve 9-11 went from being just a statement that would make someone a pariah

3:03 to a sentiment that is now voiced by people with real dominant influence in mainstream Democratic politics.

3:11 Speaker 1 Yes, I mean... The American people have to realize it’s no longer the center-left Democratic Party. This is the Democratic Socialist Party because the center-left Democratic Party that existed, they’re too scared to stand up against the Socialists. I know.

3:37 Speaker 2 That’s exactly right, John.

3:38 Speaker 3 And increasingly, I feel like I’m doing the job of center-left Democrats, right? I’m out there telling people, you don’t have to accept anti-Americanism as a standard. John, I know you’re in touch with a lot of people who used to represent the mainstream, or maybe still do, of the Democratic Party. And I would say what you should say

4:00 to them is, Diff in your spine. Hold strong.

4:04 Speaker 2 Fight for your party.

4:05 Speaker 3 Because the deepest problem.

4:07 Speaker 2 We have is this loss of confidence in the.

4:11 Speaker 3 Moral superiority of our liberal democracy. If we cannot say plainly that America and our allies are better than al-Qaeda and Hamas and the theocratic movement that hate the West, and that we deserve to prevail, then we will be continuing to cede this cultural and political ground to those who excuse our enemies.

4:39 Speaker 2 You know, George W. Bush, I think, gets a lot of hate these days, right?

4:43 Speaker 3 But his initial formulation, it may sound somewhat unfashionable today, but it was right.

4:51 Speaker 2 And I don’t care that it was blunt.

4:53 Speaker 3 At some point, a free society has to distinguish between those who defend it and those who aid the people trying to destroy it.

5:02 Speaker 2 So if you’re not with America, you are against us.

5:05 Speaker 1 We don’t, we should not give out green cards and we should not give out citizenship cards if people that hate America. You’re here to love America. You’re here to pledge allegiance to the United States, you’re here to salute the flag. If you’re not here to do that, we don’t want you in America.

5:23 Speaker 2 Absolutely. And I’m not an anti-immigration guy.

5:27 Speaker 1 I’m not. I am pro-immigration.

5:30 Speaker 3 Some of my closest friends and some of the biggest patriots I know are people who immigrated to this country. But there is absolutely nothing wrong with what Marco Rubio and his State Department and President Trump are doing to say, We need vetting.

5:47 Speaker 2 We need extreme vetting.

5:48 Speaker 3 We need to ensure that the people who are coming to this country are invested in its success and want to make it better and are committed to our project of liberal democracy and the dominance of the West, because we are, in fact, morally superior to the despots and dictators that dominate homes, theocratic hell-holes like the Islamic Republic

6:14 of Iran. And I hope that, you know, there’s a lot of freedom-loving people in Iran, too, and I hope that, you know, through this administration’s actions and the actions that are being taken by some but not enough of our allies, that we are able to move toward a world with fewer of these brutal, evil, terrorist theocracies and more people

6:35 who think like us, who laud freedom and liberty And it’s a good thing.

6:41 Speaker 2 It’s why America is such a great country.

6:44 Speaker 3 And we can’t forget that, especially not on this 9-11 anniversary.

6:48 Speaker 1 Jesse Alm, the Manhattan Institute, thank you for coming on. God bless you and God bless America. Thank you so much.

6:54 Speaker 2 Great to be with you, John.