The September 11th attack | America strikes back
Displays of patriotism follow U.S. assault

Gannett News Service

WASHINGTON — Public opinion now puts more faith in government since before the Vietnam War, but much of the rally-around-the-flag support for President Bush is based on future expectations.

Football fans yesterday turned to the giant screens at Veterans Stadium in Philadelphia to hear President Bush announce that military action against the Taliban and al-Qaida terrorist network had begun. Associated Press

"If things were to go badly in terms of other incidents, or in another substantial loss of life, and the national psyche were shaken, that could be very damaging," said Michael Traugott, chair of the Communications Studies program at the University of Michigan. "Especially given that we have heard that in coincidence with this trauma ... was apparently a declining economic situation that people had not paid much attention to."

Traugott said there is a "fair amount of research, most of it related to Vietnam, that suggests that this optimism is relatively fragile in the face of casualties."

Public opinion has taken a dramatic detour since Sept. 11, the most galvanizing moment since Pearl Harbor.

In response, Americans have renewed patriotic displays and rekindled what might be called a debate about debate. There have been calls for tolerance of Arab-Americans as well as a fresh look at racial profiling. On campuses, on TV and on editorial pages, there have been fierce discussions about whether protest and pacifism are expressions of democracy or aid and comfort to a terrorist enemy.

In the process, Americans have also expressed renewed faith in institutions they have mistrusted or denigrated since Watergate.

A Washington Post poll taken in late September found that 64 percent of Americans trust the federal government to do what is right, the highest percentage since the early 1960s, and more than twice the percentage who agreed just last year. These may be the expressions of a country preparing for war they want to believe will be successful.

The feeling cuts across all ideological groups. Republicans, who are usually the most ideologically opposed to big government, are now among the most willing to trust government.

In a Post poll taken in April 2000, only 25 percent of Republicans said they trusted the government to do the right thing. In its late September survey, 79 percent of Republicans did.

Other aspects of public opinion have made dramatic turns. Congress, whose approval ratings have hovered below 40 percent for most of the past decade, had an 88 percent positive rating in a poll late last month. Bush's own approval ratings have approached 90 percent, up nearly 40 percentage points from before the attacks.

Some public opinion analysts believe that because the attacks took place on American soil and involve thousands of victims, Sept. 11 was a transforming event — at least for now.

"I think there has been very much a revitalization of the national spirit" and "a surge of patriotism that is more supportive of both the government and the leaders and institutions," said Mark Penn, who polled for former President Bill Clinton. "This did not happen in past crises because the past recent crises have been about matters overseas."

But Traugott was not sure how long the effect would last.

"This comity is temporary," Traugott said. "It is necessary, but it is not going to last forever."

Since Sept. 11, Bush has walked a high wire between being reassuring and promising too much.

Some argue it will be virtually impossible to eliminate terror in an era of global reach and that Bush is setting himself up for failure.

But others, including House Select Intelligence Committee Chairman Porter Goss, R-Fla., disagree.

"We absolutely want to neutralize, eradicate, take out, whatever language you like in your vernacular, the international terrorist network and capability to reach to our country and do this kind of thing," Goss said.

"I think in that narrow definition of organized terrorism, I think we can do that pretty well," Goss added. "Can we get rid of all terrorist acts? Of course not. You have the solo wacko who will do in Oklahoma what we saw happen."

After early Wild West rhetoric in which he said that Americans would take Osama bin Laden "dead or alive," Bush has been increasingly measured.

Typical were two passages in a speech Thursday at the State Department.

"This is a unique type of war," Bush said, saying the anti-terrorism coalition he is assembling will be one of varied commitments.

"Some nations may be willing to commit troops, if that's a decision we make," he said. "Other nations will help in cutting off funding."

Later, Bush spoke to the expectations of success this way: "One of the things the American people appreciate about our administration is that we're results-oriented folks, that we expect there to be results."

Bush has "achieved the notion that he is very competently handling things, and the rest will be history," said Penn, Clinton's former pollster.

Bush "has achieved all the prerequisites for having success," Penn said. But, he added: "How it will unfurl is quite uncertain."