The Influence Of 9/11 On The United States

There have been many turning points in American History; however none have the same effect as September 11, 2001, and many Americans relate the day to the country’s loss of innocence. As a result of 9/11 many American’s lives were affected emotionally, physically, economically, and politically.

On September 11, 2001 terrorists apprehended 4 airplanes and committed the most heinous act in American history. They flew two planes into the world trade center, one into the Pentagon, and one crashed in a field in Pennsylvania crash killing more than three thousand American citizens. Since 9 /11many things have changed in America in relation to our national security.

Elissa Nunez of NBC News reports that 64% of Americans believe that the big money in politics discourages many great candidates from running (Nunez). On top of this number, 76% of people believe that "money has a greater influence on politics and elected officials today than in the past," (Nunez). These numbers lead to a fundamental issue in our government; a huge distrust in our federal government. Only a month after 9/11, 60% of citizens said they could trust the federal government, however, following the Iraq war and an economic downturn the number dropped to a mere 24% in 2007

America has experienced some events that has made an impact on all of our lives. Take the attack on 9/11 for example; terrorists attacked the United States using planes. They hijacked four airplanes in mid-flight. The terrorists flew two of the planes into two skyscrapers at the World Trade Center in New York City. The impact caused the buildings to catch fire and collapse. Another plane destroyed part of the Pentagon (the U.S. military headquarters) in Arlington, Virginia. The fourth plane crashed in Shanksville, Pennsylvania. Officials believe that the terrorists on that plane intended to destroy either the White House or the U.S. Capitol. Passengers was the plane fought the terrorists and prevented them from reaching their goal. In all, nearly 3,000 people were killed in the 9/11 attacks. This attack reminded many people of the attack of Pearl Harbor. Both were very catastrophic events that changed U.S. History and America in a way that makes us realize that we need to be strong.

     Secondly, trusting our government and its leaders is another problem facing American in the 21st century. In “The Circle of Governments” Niccolo Machiavelli states, “As the human race increased, the necessity for uniting themselves for defense made itself felt; the better to attain this object they chose the strongest and most courageous from amongst themselves and placed him at their head promising to obey him.”(230). I take this statement to mean that ever since the beginning of time we have

On November 22nd, 1963 America lost its innocence. It also perhaps lost its trust, trust in the American Government. In a gallop pole in 1960, 89% of the American population trusted the government. Since then it has dropped to less than to . That means that since the early 1960's over 70% of the population lost its trust in the Federal Government. While there may be different reasons why many people lost their trust, the most major one was probably the assassination and investigation of the assassination of John F. Kennedy. In 1963 and 1964 the US government told the American public about what happened that fateful day in Dallas Texas. They said that one crazy man, Lee Harvey Oswald, acting alone killed the

Trust-busting was one of the federal government’s major reform movement. The federal government thought that they needed to improve the trust-busting because the issue got to the point where government was just randomly picking and choosing who were bad and good. President Theodore Roosevelt was the most active in trust busting that they gave him and William Howard Taft an informal name called Trustbusters. In the Washington Post cartoon, it illustrated President Theodore Roosevelt attacking the bad trusts and destroying them by killing them with a shooting gun. The cartoon also showed how Roosevelt was restraining the good trusts by putting a leash on them [Document A]. This demonstrated how effective the reformers and federal government in improving trust busting. Reformers can now distinguish the good trust from the bad

Since the events of September 11, 2016, many Americans want to know what the government has done or are doing to make America safer and is it working. After America endured attacks or was involved in war, the government made changes to attempt to make the country safer. Some of the most recent changes involve The Patriot Act and changes to our immigration laws. Before we can look ahead to the present, we need to look into the past to see if our government has learned from past bad practices or if they have indeed helped us become more secure as the United States has had its share of surprise attacks.

Not only did 9/11 impact America physically, but it also took a huge toll psychologically. People responded to the terrorist attack with fear and started developing feelings of intolerance for immigrants, specifically immigrants who were or appeared to be from the Middle East. For example, people known as Sikhs, who followed Indian religion are targeted because they wear turbans, which are stereotypically associated with Muslims. Since the fatal attack, hate crimes associated with people of Islamic background have risen in the U.S. Mosques and temples of those who practice Islam as a religion have been targeted. Innocent people who are Arabs or are Muslim, now have to live with the unfair stereotype that says all Muslims/Arabs are terrorists.

September 11th, 2001 is now a date discussed in history lessons. While the post-9/11 generations may not have witnessed the changes of this tragic event, which rapidly filled every crevice of US society, they have an entire generation ready to narrate what they witnessed on and after that day. The expeditious reaction made a permanent mark on American culture.

September 11, 2001, millions of New Yorkers and American citizens woke up and started their day, unprepared and unaware for the catastrophic attack that would be taking place in just a few short hours. At 8:46 a.m., Eastern Standard Time, Flight 11 crashed into the North Tower. The impact killed all of the passengers and crew as well as hundreds inside the building. At 9:03 a.m., a second plane, Flight 175, crashed into the corner of the South Tower killing passenger, crew, and workers who worked on floors seventy-five to eighty-three. Flight 77 crashed into the Pentagon at 9:37 a.m. killing approximately 185 individuals (History.com Staff). Because of the damaged to the support system, fires, and impact at extremely fast speed, the South Tower collapsed at 9:59 a.m. (Lipton and Glanz). Having heard about the acts of terrorism that had just taken place in New York and Washington, D.C., a group of passengers drove their plane, Flight 93, into a Pennsylvania field killing everyone on board but possibly saving hundreds of other lives in the process. The North Tower collapsed at 10:28 a.m. 102 minutes after being struck (History.com Staff). On September 11, 2001, almost twelve hundred people were wounded or killed by “coordinated suicide attempts” by Al Qaeda terrorists. In result to the four airplanes being hijacked and used for premediated reasons, the United States government instituted new regulations for entering the country and airport security as well as expounded on systems already in place.

Could “ordinary Americans” accomplish a better a job of solving national problems than government officials? Study polls show that over the course of years the trust that Americans had in the government has slowly diminished. This change is the government’s fault. Someone doesn’t want to install their trust in somebody else who is not truthful. Americans should not trust government officials because they are not always truthful, treat citizens like criminals, and they are not doing anything that truly make America “better”.

Starting in 1958, American National Election Studies (ANES) began measuring public trust in government by asking participants how often they “trust the federal government to do the right thing.” This question measures Americans’ perceptions of government, but does not quantify the overall functioning of the political system. Regardless, this standard reflects how Americans think the system is running relative to their own attitudes. In addition to this measure of trust, the National Election Survey also determined Americans’ viewpoints on whether the government wasted resources, whether the government represented their interests, and whether politicians were generally crooked. The NES accomplished these measures by asking Americans questions that reflected their perceptions on these principles. By determining these judgments, pollsters gauge how Americans view government in general. When the NES began asking this set of questions in 1964, trust in government was at a high point. However, this favorability did not last very long, as “over the 16 years following Johnson’s election in 1964, political trust experienced a freefall.” Most scholars agree that the Vietnam War had a profound impact on the erosion of public trust. As it became “increasingly clear that the United States was not on

Distrust and lack of faith in someone or something will happen when the person or persons in the leading position misuse their powers and lie. This is why the American people continue to lack the ability to not be skeptical of their government. The skepticism was caused by President Richard Nixon and his Administration actions during the Watergate scandal, which should have ended with his public impeachment instead of resignation, which will continue to be the case for many years to come.

Americans trust as the ratio of peoples’ evaluation of government performance relative to their normative expectations of how government ought to perform (Hetherington and Husser, 2011). We demonstrate that such changes in Americans’ attitude with trust in government, politicians and congress through analyzing data from the 2014 General Social Survey in that trust has decreased in the overall trust in Americas government.Trends of Trust in Government