America continues to look for its true spirit in a post 9/11 world.
Just as the Vietnam war reset expectations about America in the world, so 9/11 changed America's outlook in the opening of the 21st century.
Coming off of the Clinton administration highs of boundless peace and prosperity, the public was little prepared for the next decade that would be dominated by war, global strife, surging deficits and problems at home.
More than 2/3rds of the country sees the last 10 years as a decade of decline for America according to a TIME/Aspen Ideas Festival poll I conducted earlier this summer that probed Americans on the decade since the tragic events of September 11, 2001. The country is going through the longest sustained period of unhappiness and deep pessimism since polls started to measure the country's mood. Today's teenagers can barely remember a time when things in the country were on the right track.
A country known for its optimism through adversity is having trouble finding the determination and the spirit that has sustained it through everything from world wars to nuclear threats to space races. In fact, a startling 71% see America as worse off now than it was a decade ago, including a majority of every major demographic group other than African Americans.
Given that the country has been through two vastly different administrations in the last 10 years, it is surprising that neither has been able to boost the public's sour mood.
But while 9/11 was an unexpected, external threat that changed the course of American history, the biggest threats today are seen as internal rather than external -- it's the enemy within that Americans register the most concern about now -- runaway deficits, political gridlock, persistent unemployment and spiraling healthcare costs. Osama bin Laden may now be dead and Al Qaeda's network seriously weakened, but the impact of 9/11 and the decisions that followed it have, in the views of most Americans, put America in a tailspin that so far the country has been unable to shake.
America points the finger squarely at its politicians for the decade of decline. The Bush Administration takes the most heat as 23% named it as the cause, followed by the Obama Administration (20%) and the U.S. Congress (16%); only 6% blame Wall Street. Moreover, the current systemic inability of Congress and the President to agree on virtually anything only fuels the notion that our government is broken.
So where does that leave the American Spirit? It's lacking its characteristic spunk; confidence has been replaced by fear and concern. Most believe America is falling further behind the rest of the world.
America believed it had found the leader it was looking for in Barack Obama just as they found Reagan after Carter. Now they are not so sure. They had doubts about Clinton during the journey as well so this is not unusual, and the president can still be that choice.
But the upcoming presidential election will not just be about the economy, the deficit or taxes, it will also be about who can best restore America's confidence in itself in a post 9/11 world. The American public is looking for a renewal in 2012 just as it did in 1960, 1980 and 1992. And coming out of a lost decade, the urgency for this only grows.
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All though Americans were divided on the Viet Nam War. Including our own Assisinations of JFK, MLK and RFK. And the debate was raging right up to the time when Viet Nam kicked us off their LAND. The end result I thought is that America had learned its lesson on these types of WARS. No Nation has the Right or Ability to keep others from their Self Determination as RFK enumerated
Then here comes Cheney-Rumsfeld-Wineberger who NEVER learned the lesson.
Here we are repeating the same old mistake. Yah, in the sand it may be easier with our Military Might. But I still think we have not and I hope never will return to the Pre-Viet Nam mentality.
But here we are 10 years later. Afraid to admit we had our Galiath as wipped by David with a sling shot.
Obama lost in December, renewing the Obama/Bush tax cuts, to get DADT repeal, StartII, and UI benefits (which Obama STILL thinks was a good deal). The CR kept the government running, at the expense of principle - now all fiscal measures are tied to cuts. The debt ceiling hostage taking left a stunned Obama, wearing the budget straightjacket he was fitted for in December, going back on his word about vetoing any plan that didn't have revenue too.
Obama is starting to fight for jobs, with a plan that is at best 3x too small, half made of tax cuts that won't make a single job or save a single job. More likely, the plan is 10x too small, even if you rerouted all the money to infrastructure. Yet Obama, the lawyer, wants the small win. How are we supposed to rally the party around a drowning man who will not take the life preserver offered to him?
Then came the Banking Bubble that temporaryily got us out of the recession to create a greater Depression
And the USA Mantic Depression and economic Depression is still going on with EVERY TAX CUT. Privatizing Profit for the Rich and Nationalizing Debt for the Worker
That explains a lot! ;-)
"But the upcoming presidential election will not just be about the economy, the deficit or taxes, it will also be about who can best restore America's confidence in itself in a post 9/11 world."
And who will do that? None of the GOP candidates nor Obama!
Funny how so many of those words from 1910 still ring true.
A progressive Republican President? We had a humdinger of one once.... maybe someday we will again.
"9/11 Belongs to a wider series of phenomena affecting the West: the
disintegration of the family the demise of authority, the build up of
personal debt, the collapse of financial institutions, the downgrading of
the American economy, the continuing failure of some European economies, the
loss of a sense of honour, loyalty and integrity that has brought once
esteemed groups into disrepute, the waning throughout the West of a sense of
national identity; even last month's riots. These are all signs of the
arteriosclerosis of a culture, a civilisation grown old. Whenever Me takes
precedence over We and pleasure today over viability tomorrow, a society is
in trouble. If so, then the enemy is not radical Islam it is us and our by
now unsustainable self-indulgence. The West has expended much energy and
courage fighting wars in Afghanistan and Iraq abroad and defeating terror at
home. It has spent far less, if any, in renewing its own morality and the
institutions - families, communities, ethical codes, standards in public
life - where it is created and sustained. But if I am right, this is the
West's greatest weakness in the eyes of its enemies as well as its friends.
The only way to save the world is to begin with ourselves. Our burden after
9/11 is to renew the moral disciplines of freedom. Some say it can't be done.
They are wrong: It can and must. Sure we owe the dead no less."
The rest of your comment is just baseless speculation, except for the second to last sentence which is pure ignorance.