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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsTwenty Years After 9/11, a Cloud of Pessimism Hangs Over the Country
I'm feeling this and it's depressing.
https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2021/09/twenty-years-after-911-a-cloud-of-pessimism-hangs-over-the-country
9/11 Anniversary
Twenty Years After 9/11, a Cloud of Pessimism Hangs Over the Country
In a time of near constant crisis, new polls show that most Americans think the attacks changed the country for the worse.
By Eric Lutz
September 8, 2021
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That mayor, of course, was Rudy Giuliani, who, in the 20 years since he gave that address went from Americas mayor to opportunist crank to corrupt clown workingclumsilyto subvert democracy on behalf of Donald Trump. Its a transformation that encapsulates much of the disappointment and decay and destruction of the last two decades: The promise not to engage in any form of group blame or group hatred was broken practically in the same breath it was made, with a rise in hostility toward Muslims that persists today. The stand against terrorism that Giuliani, then-President George W. Bush, and members of both political parties demanded led to nearly ten years of war in Iraq and twenty years of war in Afghanistan, the latter of which ended last month with the chaotic withdrawal of American forces and the takeover of the country by the Talibanthe group whose control was overthrown when the U.S.-led coalition began its operations in the nation in 2001. And the unity elected officials spoke of in those fevered days after the attacks? If it ever truly existed, it was for a brief spell that leaders can now only recall with an ache of nostalgia. Far from bringing Americans together around shared values, the last twenty years have seen the country cleaved apartso much so that basic tenets of reality and common sense are now matters of heated political controversy.
Theres been progress and cause for optimism in those years, to be sure. But there has also been a prevailing mood of pessimism hanging over the country, as a new Washington Post/ABC News poll released Wednesday underscored. A vast majority say the 9/11 attacks changed America, and far more respondents than not46% to 33%say the country has changed for the worse. Perceptions of the course the country has taken over the last two decades may be colored by the pandemic, which has not only dramatically altered American life on its own, but underscored the dysfunction that has long plagued the nation. But the poll also suggests a sense of gloom that has grown steadily, rather than with a single event: On the one year anniversary of the attacks, 55% of respondents said the event had changed the country for the better. On the ten year anniversary, that number was down to 39%. Now, it stands at just 33%.
That was not inevitable, of course; it is, in many ways, the product of two decades of bad choices and bad faith. What leaders vowed would unify the country instead fueled assaults on civil liberties; two devastating, intractable wars; and grievance politics that would eventually help lead to the rise of Trumpism. Its perhaps no surprise that liberals in the Post/ABC News poll tended to have bleaker views about the direction of the country since 9/11; the ugly forces in our politics that were underscored by the attacks have only seemed to gain in strength over the last twenty years, while Democrats have frequently proved ineffective in confronting them. It can be hard to hear the progress over the constant hum of crisis, which our leaders and institutions have not only struggled to avert and respond to, but in many cases exacerbated. The United Statesas both a government and a nationgot nearly everything about our response wrong, on the big issues and the little ones, the journalist and historian Garrett M. Graff wrote in the Atlantic on Wednesday.
That has implications not only for the current predicament we find ourselves insuffering the equivalent of a 9/11 twice a week over the course of the last year and a half in a pandemic that continues to rage, despite the availability of life-saving vaccinesbut for our ability to climb out of it. We are, as Graff wrote, confronting the current crisis with little of the hope, goodwill, and unity that 9/11 initially created. One rather hopes that the spell can be brokenthat, if it wasnt inevitable that the U.S. would get on this course, it is also not inevitable that it has to continue down it. But Americans in recent polls suggest they arent so confident.
roamer65
(36,744 posts)43 and 45.
Both selected by a broken Electoral College.
madaboutharry
(40,190 posts)If Al Gore and Hillary Clinton had each been president we would be in a much better place. Gore was alarmed at the threats of planes flying into buildings. 9/11 might not have happened. Hillary Clinton would have mobilized the country to fight the pandemic. Hundreds of thousands would still be alive. That is just those two events.
Barack Obama doesnt get enough credit for keeping the country from collapsing after Bush nearly completely destroyed the economy.
Backseat Driver
(4,381 posts)with the beginnings of a brain-eating incurable illness.
NewHendoLib
(60,009 posts)Most everything that was done since 9-11 was wrong - it was political only.
RANDYWILDMAN
(2,664 posts)and we stayed because people made huge money off of that lie/war and it was such a stupid concept that dullards went full bore on it. The war on terror...huge farce. great way to pit americans vs merca!
Eisenhower alerted us to this scam like 50 years before this and W mumbled something about being fooled again ?????? Did we forget so quickly WAR is a RACKET, always has been.
Pat Tillman 2004, shot by his own troops covered up the by the US Government and promoted as a hero. At any job this would be considered a colossal failure. Has two statuses and is considered a hero by many and OUR college loves to fundraise off his heroics. PROPAGANDA works! The US was in Afghanistan 14 years after his death.
300 million a day every day for 20 years on a credit card and we still have no money for schools, roads , health care or pretty much anything that benefits most people, but Jeff Bezos can ride a blimp to the edge of space on his own dime.
The valley of inequality if now the size of the grand canyon and yet our leaders still only want to do small changes.
We need massive changes....like yesterday