In the aftermath of 9/11, Bush famously said: “You are either with us or you are with the terrorists.” In time, that statement would come to represent the sinister side of American foreign and domestic policy. Countries that had been our allies now had insults hurled at them because they had the audacity to challenge the legitimacy of our military endeavors (anyone remember “Freedom Fries?”), Americans who did not engage in wild displays of patriotism now had their “American-ness” questioned, and we were becoming more and more cautious of those who didn’t look, talk, act and pray like us. In other words, our patriotism was being bastardized into something much worse: extreme nationalism.

This extreme nationalism spilled over into our national discourse. Those on left accused the right of being blind, flag-wavin’-gun-totin’ “patriots” while the right accused the left of being dirty hippies who “hate America.” The cable news networks, likely seeing the potential for ratings, grasped on to this and began feeding content specifically tailored to their target demographics. MSNBC and CNN catered to Democrats while Fox News pandered to Republicans. Never before in history could you hear a version of the news that played right into your preconceived notions. America: What a country!

This is illustrated perfectly in our (lack of) bipartisanship voting on Capitol Hill. In 2014, the Pew Research Center conducted a study of how Congressmen/women had voted over a span of 40 years. In the 1970s, there was a significant amount of bipartisan voting between Democrats and Republicans in both the House and the Senate. By 2012, bipartisanship had become all but eliminated. Whether that division first started on Capitol Hill or on Main Street didn’t matter. It had now infiltrated every level of our society.

Image courtesy of the Pew Research Center.

In 2008, Barack Obama was elected president on a platform of “Change” and “Hope.” To those on the left, he was seen as an American savior. To the right, he was the devil incarnate. Throughout his candidacy, a movement was beginning to take shape amongst fringe members of the right. They alleged that his birth certificate was a forgery and that he was not, in fact, a citizen of the United States. Though initially mocked, the so-called “Birther Movement” truly began to gain momentum after the Tea Party embraced the conspiracy. Regardless of your views towards Obama, you must acknowledge that his campaign and eventual presidency exposed just how horribly divided we’d become.

We were only getting started.

In 2010, Donald Trump — who was beginning to publicly flirt with the idea of running for president — added his name to the list of those who doubted the validity of Obama’s birth certificate. In time, we would be treated to an endless barrage of tweets and TV interviews where the former reality star accused the President of the United States of not being American. Not since the era of McCarthy had there been a level of paranoia and baseless accusation this high in America. Despite claims that their motivations were anything but racist, it was clear that the Birther Movement had its roots in xenophobic rhetoric — which had become more and more accepted in the post-9/11 era. Embracing the Tea Party narrative, Trump’s platform was being built on catering to the fringe right. Like the Tea Party itself, he was initially mocked. But within a few years, The Donald had picked up a considerable amount of momentum.

Trump rallying his supporters. Freso/Getty Images

On January 8, 2016, Trump was holding a rally in Rock Hill, South Carolina. During his speech, a Muslim woman by the name of Rose Hamid silently stood up — she was wearing a hijab. Within moments, Trump’s team pounced on her and she was escorted from the event while Trump supporters booed and yelled racist insults at her. Why was she there? Because she wanted to give Trump supporters a glimpse of what a true Muslim was like in spite of the fact that their candidate was proudly announcing his plans to ban Muslims from coming to America.

Trump would be elected President exactly 10 months later, 15 years after 9/11. A pocket of society that, for the most part, had been kept in the shadows now had its most vocal proponent in the Oval Office. You know the rest of the story.