This is not a 9/11 remembrance post. We remember the horrible day on which Islamic terrorists cruelly murdered 2,977 people. Instead, this is a post about how our culture has failed to sustain the day that created modern America.

History’s “hinge points” mark a single event that breaks with the past and sets us on a new path. America has had a few: The American Revolution; the Civil War; World War I; WWII; Kennedy’s assassination; and 9/11. America has had room to remember all of them (yes, even World War I), but it has no room for 9/11—that is, not as long as the Democrats have anything to say about it.

The American Revolution was a remarkable hinge point, and that’s not just because our nation began then. It’s also because, for the first time in history, we had a nation explicitly founded on the notion of individual liberty arising from inherent rights that come from God, not government. Americans often badly failed to recognize that those rights exist in everyone, but the rights themselves are pure and good.

And here’s something to contemplate: The Bill of Rights was passed in 1791 when the French Revolution was peaking. Unlike the American Revolution, which was predicated on the rights of the individual, the French Revolution continued the totalitarianism of pre-Revolutionary France. It simply replaced the hated monarchy and aristos with the new tyranny of the Commune.

Since 1791, the world has never ceased fighting these two revolutions: Individual liberty versus “my party gets to be the new tyrant.”

Image: September 11, 2001 (cropped) by Robert J. Fisch. CC BY 2.0.

Until quite recently, we celebrated July 4 as a day of tremendous value. Since 9/11, that memory has become a fight, but we still acknowledge the historic moment.

The Civil War, of course, finally forced the nation to come to terms with the divide between its values and its practices. We paid a bloody price, with well over 600,000 dead. Because of Abraham Lincoln’s death, official Washington very quickly allowed Southerners to revert to their racist past. That’s why we’re still fighting battles over monuments that, had the post-war era been better managed, would never have been raised in the first place. And of course, when Woodrow Wilson gained the White House, he took his southern biases and brought them to the entire federal government.

We continue to honor the Civil War, which looms large in the American consciousness.

World War I saw President Wilson formulate the “Wilson Doctrine”: America’s responsibility was “to make the world safe for democracy.” George W. Bush was playing out the Wilson doctrine when he decided to reshape the Middle East after 9/11. We continue to honor World War I every time we celebrate Veteran’s Day.

World War II not only gave rise to the Cold War but also made America the world’s dominant country. When the war ended, not only was America victorious, but it hadn’t been affected by battles on its soil. It was also the only post-war nation that was defiantly capitalist. Between the one and the other, we became the world’s wealthiest nation and (true to Wilson) the world’s policeman.

World War II was the backdrop to every Baby Boomer’s life because so many were raised by men and women who participated directly in the war. Its imagery (the flag-raising on Iwo Jima, the concentration camps, the fall of Berlin, the Blitz in Britain, etc.) was emblazoned on American minds.

In 1963, John F. Kennedy was assassinated. He instantly became a Democrat martyr, which is ironic given that today’s Democrats would despise his policies. His death paved the way for LBJ, who was much more radical than Kennedy. Whether on race or war, LBJ’s policies shaped the 1960s. Kennedy’s martyrdom makes sure his assassination is forever burned in our collective consciousness.

And then there was 9/11. That was a true hinge point. It forced Americans to recognize that many of the world’s 1.6 billion Muslims despise everything the West stands for, with America as the avatar of the West. It led to Dubya’s ill-advised forays into the Middle East. Frankly, I don’t know if we ever could have changed the entrenched Arab/Muslim cultures, but I do know that the Democrats’ frantic, relentless, anti-America opposition made any victory impossible, and if you can’t possibly win a war, don’t fight it.

The September 11 attacks also gave us the Patriot Act; constant surveillance; the risible notion that “Islam is a religion of peace”; the degradation of our military, allowing leftists to rebuild it in their own image; and a completely radicalized Democrat party. Since the 1930s, communists had been working within the Democrat party to push it further left, but it was the anti-war protests that cemented today’s hard-left Democrat party, with every consequence flowing from that radicalization: Racial politics, LGBTQ madness, Obama as the antidote to Dubya (and Biden as Obama’s successor); open borders; the 2020 election shenanigans…they all flowed from a newly ascendant left.

Despite what the Democrats owe to 9/11, they have minimal interest in the day itself. If you go to CNN’s home page today, 9/11 is just one of many stories, right there with “‘GMA’ anchor Robin Roberts marries Amber Laign in backyard ceremony.” The same is true for MSNBC’s home page, where 9/11 ranks below “There’s at least one thing Trump doesn’t appear eager to plant his name on.” Indeed, go to every MSM outlet, and you’ll discover the same—9/11 is barely a sidebar.

And in the heart of D.C., the blithering Kamala has been deputized to attend Ground Zero ceremonies. Meanwhile, Biden is in Alaska, barely noticing 9/11 but celebrating the fact that his recent executive orders will once again make us economically dependent on nations espousing the same ideology that sought to destroy us.

Never Forget has become “Don’t bother to remember.” It’s no wonder that my children and their peers continue not to remember or just don’t care.

(As a reminder, contrary to past practice, American Thinker publishes material throughout the day. Be sure to check in to see if there's new content later in the day.)