Preemptive war, color-coded alerts, red states and blue states: The politics of America have changed in the years since Sept. 11, 2001, and, according to a recent survey by The Daily Princetonian, so have the politics of Princetonians.
Half of those polled reported that their political views have shifted in the last five years, with the majority of those students saying that the change had something to do with 9/11.
The question of how the attacks and their aftermath shaped the politics of a generation, though, is a complex one. For some — particularly those at the ends of the ideological spectrum — the past five years have made clear the differences between political parties and highlighted the importance of open and vigorous debate.
For others, the rise of such partisanship is one of the attacks' most unfortunate legacies. Most agree, however, that the years since 9/11 have brought about a renewed interest in American political life and the new politics of terrorism.
A shift to the left
On a campus already perceived as politically liberal, the aftermath of 9/11 appears to have pushed students, on aggregate, even further to the left.
Of those surveyed whose views changed as a result of 9/11, two thirds said they had become more liberal while only one third said they had become more conservative.
In interviews, some of the students who shifted to the left said they were alienated not by the Bush administration's performance after 9/11, but by its decision to invade Iraq.
"Right after 9/11, I was really glad that Bush was our president, and he was very much of a take-charge kind of president," said Chelsea Carter '08, a moderate who says she's "all over the place" politically. "He seemed to know exactly what was going on and what he was going to do about it."
But the president lost Carter over Iraq. "I think it was once we went to war with Iraq that I really stopped supporting Bush in any way, shape or form," she said.
Tom Brown '07, a self-described "moderate Democrat," said he considers the war in Iraq the "wedge issue" that drove Democrats and Republicans apart from their unified stance after 9/11.
Three-and-a-half years after the confict in Iraq began, more than half of Princeton students surveyed — 56 percent — said they do not consider the Iraq campaign part of the larger War on Terror. The survey, which included responses from 1,026 undergraduate students collected between Sept. 6 and Sept. 8, has a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.
"I did suspect that President Bush might expand the offensive into Iraq just because when he was elected, I had this hunch that he was going to try to finish off what his father started," Michael Constantinides '07 said. "I really don't think President Bush had much of a foreign policy before 9/11 happened."
Julia Brower '08, president of the College Democrats, dismissed theories about ulterior motives for war, but said that it was not the proper response to 9/11.
"I wasn't going to go so far as to say that it was totally about oil or something, but I didn't see it in the framework of the War on Terror," she said. "I think Iraq needs to be dealt with. I don't think that the [Bush] administration has anything else to offer that the Democrats with a fresh approach might have."
College Republicans president Alex Maugeri '07, on the other hand, said he felt 9/11 called for "Republican solutions."
"[Bush] takes the long view, and I think the party has to do that too. There is no sense of pessimism among the ranks ... people [in the party] think that history will judge this era of Republican control positively."
But Maugeri, who is also an associate editor at the 'Prince,' acknowledged that war is never popular. "Obviously, as people continue to die, I understand how people have despair."
A more global focus
During the 1990s, Americans were generally preoccupied with domestic affairs, often regarding issues of national security as "antique," politics professor Robert George said. The rest of the world seemed distant and abstract.
Since 9/11, though, students routinely flock to lectures and courses pertaining to international affairs and national security.
"I always found students to be very engaged, [but] I think the focus of their attention is different," George said. "We discovered that we were participating in a larger world, and that our international relations were a very, very important part of our politics. In fact, we even had to start thinking about broader issues in the context of international affairs."
This intellectual engagement in foreign affairs does not appear to be dissipating, either, George said.
"I have not seen [that interest] decline," he said. "I think we're at a plateau. It's a pretty high plateau, so there's not a lot of room upward. There are very few students who are not in some way interested in international affairs as a result of 9/11."
But has this newfound interest in world affairs translated into more political action at Princeton?
"I'm not sure," Brown, the moderate Democrat, said. "And I think that's got to be the key if we want to transmute what happened on 9/11 into a greater sense of purpose and action about political affairs."
An appeal for unity
Some moderates interviewed worried that the political spectrum had become overly polarized since 9/11, with a loss of the unity and bipartisanship seen in the immediate aftermath of the attacks.
"Now we've divided into a red state-blue state thing, which is unfortunate, I think, because I think that it's harder and harder to be a moderate now," said Carter, the student who had initially supported Bush.
Garrett Brown '09 said the current debate over pulling out of Iraq is indicative of the overly partisan political climate.
"There're some moderate voices in that situation, I admit, but a lot of what we hear is either still 'you're in it for the long haul' or 'you're going to just cut and run and not really stay faithful to making sure democracy flourishes,' " he said.
For their parts, the respective leaders of the College Republicans and Democrats said the notion of lost unity has been overemphasized.
"A lot of that has been played up, I think," Brower, the Democrat, said of the alleged partisanship.
Maugeri took the view that America's polarity was not only exaggerated, but also healthy.
"We wouldn't have much of a democracy if we didn't have partisan divisions," he said. "I really think that what's exaggerated is the idea that those divisions spill out from politics and into everyday life."
Since 9/11, though, both parties have struggled with the issue of how to wage the new war.
Democrats, on the one hand, must work to convince voters nationwide that they are capable of taking on security challenges, Brower said.
They seem to be doing well at Princeton, at least compared to Republicans. According to the 'Prince' poll, a third of students said they trust Democrats more than Republicans to keep them safe. Twenty percent said they trusted Republicans over Democrats.
That's not to say that either party is doing well, on the whole. Nearly half — 45 percent — of students said they trust neither party to keep America safe.
Maugeri said the Republicans' low showing in the survey was not an indication of nationwide sentiments. "I think national surveys show Republicans leading on the issue," he said.
He added that such mistrust was typical of college-aged students. "College kids are going to think they have a solution better than the politicians, and we're also at Princeton, so that makes us think we have answers even more," he said.
Brower said that Democrats need to make sure national security is not the only issue up for debate. "We need to be safe, but the flip-side is we also need to be improving what we're actually trying to protect," she said.
Maugeri agreed that the political debate had to be about more than terrorism and safety, and said that Republicans were attempting to broaden the discussion.
"I don't think the accusation is fair, to say that Republicans are making this all about terrorism," he said. "Yes, they poll well on this issue. But overwhelmingly in House races and Senate races around the country, voters want to hear about more, and they are hearing about more."
In the coming weeks, both groups are gearing up to campaign for candidates in the approaching midterm elections.
Brower said that this fall the College Democrats will aim to fix what she perceives as a critical lack of student activism on the Princeton campus. "Our goal for this fall up to the midterm elections is to get as many people as we can volunteering on the campaigns that we've identified as important," she said.
College Republicans will be looking towards local races, Maugeri said, including the much-watched Senate contest between Republican Tom Kean, Jr. and incumbent Democrat Robert Menendez (D-N.J.).
9/11's legacy
What will 9/11 end up meaning for politics in America? Many important questions remain unanswered, and many of those interviewed were unable to offer specifics beyond the fact that the attacks will be an enduring tragedy.
"What it does is force us to deal seriously with constitutional issues and how freedom is going to be understood in the post-9/11 world," Brown said.
Currently, however, there is the possibility that the attacks may one day be regarded as an aberration. "We're now tending to look at it as an isolated event," George said, though he cautioned that there is "no going back to a Sept. 10 view of the world."
"I think the fact that we haven't had additional attacks, at least not yet, means we have not been forced to confront the hardest questions regarding civil liberties and security concerns."
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