Today's the day Glenn Beck and his 9.12 Project descend upon Washington and – oddly enough – aim to recreate the national unity that we all felt following 9/11, by launching a partisan broadside against Barack Obama, our popularly elected President.

It's right-wing craziness, of course, where national unity is synonymized with Republican politics.

The problem with Glenn Beck's 9.12 Project isn't that he exploits the 9/11 tragedy for his own benefit. The problem – for Beck – is that we remember 9/11 and how it made us feel. We felt a support for our country that transcended politics. It's a memory that lets us see the deceit behind Beck's grandstanding and gives us the resolve to push-back against it.

The morning of the 9/11 tragedy, I took my daughter to school; returned to my home office; turned on the K99 Good Morning Guys – and heard them talk about incomprehensible things. For two guys whose show features impersonations of Norwegian-American farmers, I recall on 9/11 they rose to the occasion and performed their jobs like the pros they are, although I soon changed the station to NPR.

In the days and weeks following the tragedy, my support for President Bush and the Congressional leadership (Republicans all) remained sincere and free of critique. It's the patriotic response I heard from every level of government and from my friends and colleagues. Like no other time in my life, this was the time I saw our country stand up as a united nation.

Then, six weeks after 9/11, an editorial appeared in the Coloradoan by the the County Commissioner Tom Bender. I vividly recall reading it. It was shocking. Heinous. Partisan in using 9/11 as an opportunity to demonize, in Bender's words, the "American Taliban" who had been a "serious threat to America for almost 70 years." No, Bender wasn't talking about the American Middle Class, which had risen to prominence over the 70 years between 1931 and 2001, he was referring to his liberal political opponents, with whom he disagreed.

Bender's sentiments foreshadowed the partisan divisions that Bush's policies and warfare would soon inflict upon the country – as Bush and the Republican Party used the 9/11 crisis as an excuse to circumscribe civil liberties, commit preemptive war, deny the requirements of international law, and all the while, sink the country into Chinese-held debt, while redistributing the country's wealth to the tiniest sliver of the already unimaginably well-off few.

At the top of this webpage you can see a scan of the Coloradoan's Opinion page from Saturday, October 27, 2001. You can see the first part of Tom Bender's letter, and you can see the political cartoon the Coloradoan ran next to it. The cartoon is by Canadian cartoonist Aislin and shows the trajectory from 9/11 disaster to national unity. Tom Bender – and Glenn Beck – show us how irrelevant that trajectory is to Republican political practice.

Tom Bender's editorial is reproduced below.

PC Activism Doesn't Serve Nation Well During Crisis
The Sept. 11 Taliban terrorism attack on America shattered the fantasy world temporarily created by the anti-American, politically correct, or PC, activism here at home.

This violent terrorist attack brought the real world of good and evil into the lives of many PC victims. It's unfortunate that a national tragedy perpetrated by a like PC agenda relying on dishonesty, hate and fear must occur to awaken and unite America.

We patriotic Americans have alerted citizens for years of the American-loathing PC agenda that has been a serious threat to America for almost 70 years. The American Taliban represents itself as a loosely bound coalition of PC special interests. Their recognizable tactics are intimidation and fear perpetuating racism, class warfare, environmental dishonesty, gun control and moral vandalism to divide and politically suppress naive Americans.

Except for a few local Taliban loyalists using the Coloradoan and other local media editorial sections, the PC media elite, such as the Dan Rathers and Rosie O'Donnells have discontinued further bashing and apologizing to the world for America, our Constitution, rule of law, military, patriotism and our flag within hours after the foreign attack.

An intercepted message dated Sept.12 from Allen Mattison [Sierra Club Director of Media Relations and Press Secretary] to his organization staff, temporarily halted all political activities in response to our nation's crisis. In part, he wrote: "In response for the immediate future. We have taken all of our ads off the air, halted telephone banks, removed any material from the Web that people could perceive as anti-Bush and are taking steps to prevent the ____ ____ ["Sierra Club" redacted in Bender's original letter] from being perceived as controversial during this crisis."

My position is that if a political agenda or ideology is not good for America during national crises or hard times, then it's not good for America at any time. Turning patriotism on and off and displaying our flag only to create favorable public perception is the height of hypocrisy and betrayal.

True patriotism is more than displaying our flag. Patriotism is the honesty, loyalty and courage to faithfully defend American values, institutions and traditions from all forms of political terrorism at all times.

Real Americans do not abandon courage for phony PC civility. Local PC terrorists recently insisted that the individual doesn't matter and the idea of informed people thinking for themselves is the real threat to America.

One local activist claims that I and other Americans with steadfast allegiance to American values are out of touch with and not representative of her political values and those predominantly held by urban residents of Fort Collins. She is correct that her PC politics are contrary to American values but to speak for Fort Collins is a little extreme.

Another Taliban activist criticized my American devotion to the preservation and legitimacy of those fundamental inalienable human rights of life, liberty and especially property endowed to each individual by our creator as fanatical.

As proud Americans, don't allow terrorists to intimidate you down to their level; but instead tolerate their anti-American dissent when they come out of hiding. We don't have to be active military members to do our part in defending America from terrorism. It's our duty to remain informed, vigilant and active combating all forms of anti-American terrorism as a untied force politically and at the ballot box.

"The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing." – Edmund Burke, 1729-1797

Tom Bender
Larimer County Commissioner