How Common Ground of 9/11 Gave Way to Partisan Split

"We are changed forevermore," Sen. Chuck Hagel (R-Neb.) said on that bright and horrific day when the Twin Towers of New York's World Trade Center collapsed in rubble, one side of the Pentagon lay smoldering along the banks of the Potomac and a field in Pennsylvania had been turned into a graveyard for the passengers on hijacked United Flight 93.

Hagel's statement was echoed by many politicians, but today few Americans say the tone and practice of politics has changed for the better. A Washington Post-ABC News poll last month found that almost nine in 10 Americans said politics is the same or even more partisan than it was before the attacks. And on this, there is no partisan divide: Half of all Democrats, Republicans and independents said there has been no change, while about four in 10 in each of those groups said politics is more partisan.

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) said Sept. 11 changed politics far less than he had hoped. "I'd hoped that we would be more bipartisan and I think we are bipartisan in the war on terror," he said in a recent interview. "But on every other issue, we are more divided and more partisan than I've ever seen us."

The partisan wars have severely limited Washington's ability to accomplish big things. Bush's second-term domestic initiative, the overhaul of Social Security, collapsed in the face of a partisan standoff in Congress. Public disaffection with politicians in the capital has increased since Sept. 11, 2001, and politicians are nervously wondering whether it will result in a major eruption this fall or in 2008.

The 'New Normal'

---

Last month, when Bush met with European Union leaders, foreign journalists pressed him to explain why so many Europeans have come to dislike the United States. "Look," he replied, "people didn't agree with my decision on Iraq, and I understand that. For Europe, September the 11th was a moment; for us, it was a change of thinking."

In reality, what is most striking was how quickly the country returned to normal after the attacks, albeit what pollster Bill McInturff called "the new normal." McInturff and his partners at Public Opinion Strategies, a firm that polls for Republican candidates and other clients, decided shortly after Sept. 11 to track the changes in public opinion systematically over the subsequent year.

What the surveys showed, as McInturff put it, is the nation's ability to shrug off even something as devastating as the attacks of Sept. 11. "There was a massive shock wave in the body politic, and then there was this recovery, and this recovery happened stunningly quickly," he said, adding, "It didn't take America five years to recover. It was like a year."

At first, changes in attitudes were dramatic, suggesting a potential break with the old politics. In the days after the attack, trust in government in Washington to do the right thing all or most of the time hit 64 percent, compared with 30 percent in the spring of 2000. By the summer of 2002, the percentage had settled back at 39 percent in the McInturff survey.

A Gallup poll in December 2001 found that 71 percent of Americans said that religion as a whole was increasing its influence on American life, a sharp turnabout from the findings of almost 20 years of polling. By March 2002, according to a Pew Research poll, the 9/11 effect had worn off and the public's view had reverted to pre-attack levels, with 37 percent saying religion's influence on American life was increasing.

Fear of attack also spiked, but then quickly began to recede, although women remained more nervous than men. Fear of flying increased, then began to decline within weeks of the attack. The attacks understandably scrambled the nation's issue agenda. Combating terrorism rose to the top of the country's priorities, while concern over other issues dropped. But by the end of 2001, concern about jobs and the economy once again were as high as terrorism and security. Health care also returned as a major issue.

Politicians quickly picked up the cues, sometimes with surprising speed. Bush stayed off the campaign trail, but there were negative ads (on issues other than terrorism) on the air in gubernatorial campaigns in New Jersey and Virginia by late October 2001, and the jockeying for control of Congress resumed in earnest by early 2002.

Presidential candidates, however, discovered a new set of realities, which played out dramatically in 2004. "We essentially transformed our [Democratic] convention into a VFW meeting," said Democratic strategist David Axelrod. "That would not have happened if not for 9/11."