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Epilogue Pitfalls and Promises: Whither the “Public” in America? Sheila L. Croucher The terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, and the war on terror that ensued, energized an ongoing debate over civic engagement in America and led many scholars to speculate about the potential for civic revitalization in the United States. Would this conflict, like others in America’s past, mobilize the citizenry, increase volunteerism, and enhance community sentiment ?1 Political scientist Robert Putnam, who not long before 9/11 had famously warned of a decline in civic engagement in the United States illustrated by the tendency of Americans to “bowl alone,” saw in 9/11 a potential for Americans to begin “bowling together.” He wrote: “In the aftermath of September’s tragedy, a window of opportunity has opened for a sort of civic renewal that occurs only once or twice a century.”2 Indeed, Americans generously donated money and blood, adorned their homes, cars, and clothes with American flags, and, according to some indicators, experienced an increase in trust of neighbors and national pride.3 Given the degree of political and cultural divisiveness present in the United States on September 10, 2001, this response may suggest, as Edward Linenthal does in Chapter 2, “Remembrance , Contestation, Excavation,” that “Bereavement, perhaps, is one of the only ways Americans can imagine themselves as one. It trumps, for a time anyway, the many ways we are divided.” The extent to which the opportunity for civic revitalization was seized, however, remains unclear. Most measures subsequent to the immediate aftermath of 9/11 indicate that any increase in civic vitality in the United States was minimal and shortlived . Putnam’s own research revealed that occasional volunteering was up only slightly after 9/11, and regular volunteering remained unchanged.4 Theda Skocpol also analyzed public reaction to 9/11 and concluded that official efforts to mobilize citizens in a civic fashion have been only sporadic and weak, and much more commercial than civic. She attributes the minimal in- crease in public engagement to the fact that existing civic organizations provide few outlets or arenas for group involvement: “Churches remain vital centers of membership activity in many United States communities, but other kinds of membership associations have dwindled or disappeared.”5 “How Americans Respond” (HAR), a large-scale, longitudinal survey organized by the Institute for Social Research, attempted to gauge social trust in the United States and concluded that Americans did rally around each other in a show of patriotism and mutual support. The flip side, however, of trust in neighbors and fellow Americans was distrust of some groups of foreigners, immigrants, and some ethnic groups in the United States.6 This distrust calls into question, as does Linenthal’s analysis, the notion of a “seamless bereaved community,” and suggests, as Linenthal does, that “perhaps such events both bring communities together and tear them apart simultaneously.” September 11 became a touchstone in American public life, but another date, the November 2, 2004, United States presidential election (“11/2”) provided another more recent opportunity to assess the state of the public realm in America.7 The good news, in terms of what Mary Kupiec Cayton characterizes as the political or civic public, is that the turnout of eligible voters who went to the polls was the heaviest it has been since 1968. Additionally, a number of new organizations emerged as key social and political actors such as ACT and MoveOn.org—attesting and contributing to an energized civil society in the United States. The troubling news is that the form and content of the public debate during the 2004 election was simultaneously more restrictive and more divisive. The range of possible policy options and political viewpoints in areas ranging from education to foreign affairs to economic policy was quite narrow and polarized. Meanwhile, the political “dirty tricks,” the overwhelming influence of money, and the invocation of moral values as a justification for using state and federal constitutions to deny, rather than guarantee, civil rights for some citizens casts a long shadow on the democratic public sphere. Moreover, 11/2/04 revealed the now infamous divide between “Blue” and “Red” America. In a post-9/11/01 and post-11/2/04 era, the time is ripe for a reconsideration of the notion of the public in America. The contributors to this volume have provided a range of analyses on the theories, history, evolution, and contemporary manifestations of public culture. From the Los Angeles Plaza...

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