NO ONE HATES JUST MEXICANS:

Trump's first response to the 9/11 attacks was to congratulate himself (on the radio) for now having the tallest building in downtown Manhattan, the two taller structures having been destroyed. (Naturally, the boast was false.) His bid to buy the Park51 project seemed about as serious as his pledges to ease tension, or his bizarre insistence that he saw people in New Jersey on 9/11 celebrating on rooftops: just more Trumpian bluster.

It is one thing to oppose radical Islamist terrorism. But when Republican politicians, for short-term political gain, redefined the enemy not as violent jihadists but Muslims in general, they also began to redefine their party as one welcoming xenophobic rhetoric and candidates. Remember, this was also the era when Republicans went out of their way to emphasize the middle name of "Barack Hussein Obama," and when Donald Trump, with an eye on the White House, was helping to spread lies about Obama's birth certificate and hinted that Obama was secretly Muslim. The GOP became the sort of party that would stand by Donald Trump when he told Democratic members of Congress to "go back" to where they came from. The sort of party that would stand by his "Muslim ban."

It didn't have to be that way. Not all Republicans were as irresponsible: After 9/11, President George W. Bush made every effort to communicate that America's war was not against Muslims--and many of the Muslims who have come here from Iraq, Afghanistan, and elsewhere over the past two decades got that message.

But too many Republicans ensured that their party's base heard a very different message. And they still are: Some are rightly criticizing Biden's botched response to the Afghanistan withdrawal that Trump sought, but others are demeaning the very people who will be great Americans.

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