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Impact
of September 11 on American Domestic Politics The first month after September 11 saw several impacts caused by the terrorist attacks on American domestic politics. Freedom of individual expression is to some extent challenged. First, many Americans do not tolerant free expressions of others. According to the Gallup poll (September 21-22), only 49% of the Americans think people have the right to protest against military action while another 49% think people should rally around the country in times like this and not protest against military action regardless of their personal beliefs. The significant public outrage and several advertisers' boycott against Bill Maher, host of the ABC late-night talk show Politically Incorrect, for being vague in his attitude regarding the terrorists is a good case in point. The firing of two columnists, Dan Guthrie and Tom Gutting, from Daily Courier and the Texas City Sun for questioning President Bush's leadership skills respectively provided other examples. Second, some Americans become hesitant to express themselves freely. According to the Gallup poll (October 5-6), 31% of the Americans think they will be less likely to say things that might be unpopular. Third, State Department joined the opposition against VOA (Voice of America)'s broadcasting of an excerpt of an interview with Taliban's Leader Mullah Mohamed Omar. The director of VOA was changed after the incident. More governmental, especially federal executive, performance is favored to some extent. First, there is a significant increase of such favor from society. According to the Gallup poll (October 5-6), 50% of the Americans think government should do more to solve the country's problems while 41% think government is trying to do too many things that should be left to individuals and businesses. In contrast, the percentage for the former item has never been over 40% and that for the latter never been below 50% since 1994. Second, trust in government increases sharply in the wake of terrorist attacks. However, the balance between individual freedom and political order is a complex issue of concern. A majority of Americans do not support certain measures to be taken by the government. First, 69% oppose while 29% favor allowing police to stop people on the street at random to search their possessions. Second, 65% of the Americans, compared with 33% who favor, oppose easier legal authorities to read mail, e-mail to tap phones without the person's knowledge. Before any power being vested to the government, people need to ask whether it is indispensable. As in this case, there is much that can be done in the technical level such as adjustment of foreign policy, stricter regulation on issuing driver's license, coordination between law enforcement agencies, improve airport securities and strengthen the Office of National Security to prevent similar tragedies. Executive power is expanding. First, Congress made little constraints on what and how the Bush Administration should act to deal with the consequences of the terrorist attacks when it appropriated the $40 billion emergency response fund. Second, senate passed a bill late Thursday night expanding law enforcement power. Some of the provisions are: A) authorization of "roving wiretaps", B)permission for the federal government to detain non-US citizens suspected of terrorism for up to 7 days without specific charges, C) authorization of greater subpoena power for law enforcement officials for e-mail records of terrorist suspects. Third, for the first time the government shuts down air stations. There has been no precedence or law to vest executive branch such a power. Fourth, the Bush administration established Office for Homeland Security and Homeland Security Council via executive order. These two are within the executive office of the president and therefore congress has no control over them. And the council has been vested vast amount of power to interfere with anything necessary for domestic security within the limit of law. What needs to be pointed out is that information sharing restrictions between US law enforcement and intelligence offices about suspected terrorists were relaxed on Thursday, after the coordination function was given to the Office of Homeland Security. The priorities for the Bush Administration and Congress have shifted after the attacks. First, the Bush Administration and Congress both concentrate more on terrorism, defense and foreign affairs. The benefit of a positive relationship with other countries, including China, is more favored. Second, people's view of the relative importance between international issues and domestic issues changed greatly. Gallup polls of January 10-14 and October 5-6 indicates, percentages of those who think foreign affairs and defense issues extremely important increased from 17% to 52% and from 26% to 57% respectively. The only domestic issues increased are the economy (+20%) and social security (+5%). The Republican Party is the winner in the party system. First, the approval rate of Bush Administration is over 85% during the recent Gallup polls. Second, by a significant margin, 56% to 21%, Americans say they have more confidence in the Republicans than the Democrats to deal with terrorism. And the fight against terrorism is deemed extremely important by 70% Americans. (On the economy, the public is divided.) Third, the Bush Administration is less blamed to be responsible for the attacks. Only 34% blame the Bush Administration while 45% blame the Clinton Administration. Much more people blame airport security, CIA and FBI. (Gallup poll, September 14-15) Social distrust, especially against Moslems or Arab Americans, increases. First, general social distrust increases. 50% Americans become more suspicious of strangers and 68% become more aware of things that affect personal safety. Second, many people become suspicious and some even hostile to Moslems or Arab Americans. A) 58% of the Americans support requiring Arabs, including those who are US citizens, to undergo special and more intense security checks before boarding airplanes in the US; 49% support for requiring Arabs to carry a special ID (Gallup, September 14-15). B) Some Moslem communities have reported threats and several Moslems were killed. Sikhs, who are non-Moslem, were also harassed and at least one was killed only because they look like Moslems. However, Moslem communities, including Moslem scholars, condemned the attack and think the attacks are not jihad. Both the Bush Administration and Congress condemned harassment against Moslems. In a multi-ethnic country like USA, people need to learn that it is one's subjective commitment instead of one's objective identity that motivates one's action against other groups. There are different voices in large groups. An individual/sub-group is not responsible for the action, with which they disagree, of another individual/sub-group even if they are perceived to have some objective traits in common. Little evidence of impact on the economic confidence has shown. First, according to the Gallup polls, no evidence of impact on consumer confidence and investment confidence has been exhibited. Second, 65% Americans have high confidence to preserve the American way of life. (The author is a Ph.D. candidate in political science at New York University and is interested in the study of group conflict with various research approaches.) |