No. 415 | September 11, 2026
🗽 9/11 was another country
Today, the country marks the 25th anniversary of the September 11, 2001 attacks. The pictures of that day bring back the fear Americans felt in the days and weeks that followed. But out of that fear came a wave of national unity and pride that we haven’t come close to experiencing since.
Looking back at the polling after 9/11 is a reminder that the past is another country. Our immediate instinct was to come together. In one poll, 72% said the country was going in the right direction; just 11% said it was off on the wrong track.
The post-9/11 period was the last sustained stretch of when a majority of Americans were optimistic about the country. There were smaller rallies at the start of the Iraq War and after Saddam Hussein’s capture. But by 2004, “wrong track” had taken the lead, and we haven’t looked back since.
