Governance will adjust accordingly. President George W. Bush will have unprecedented latitude to organize a national response. Congress must not appear to be obstructionist or in any way detrimental to the nation's security. Any congressman or senator so perceived will be punished at the polls, no matter how congenial his or her district or state might be.
Bush himself will have to pay mind to what political economist Walter Russell Mead calls the "Jacksonian" constituency. Jacksonians are the political descendants of Andrew Jackson, who fought the Indian wars with a ruthlessness that bordered on the maniacal. Jacksonians are the core of Bush's base, and they will demand a shattering response to the World Trade Center and Pentagon attacks. If he does not perform to their liking, they will find someone else who will.
No one can say with certainty what the full scope of this sea change in the national psyche portends. But it is a huge change, an inflection point like no other we have known. The Nazis were across the ocean. The Japanese only got as far as Hawaii. The Soviets were deterred by MAD (mutual assured destruction) . Since September 11, there has been a distinct possibility that the lives of hundreds of thousands of major metropolitan residents could end with a sudden intake of breath or the blinding flash of a loose nuke. That terrorists would not use such weapons is now wishful thinking. We are at war with people who are capable of horror beyond hell.
And everyone knows it, in the most profound way. September 11 begat the Fear. The war to come will beget more fear. It is an absolutely necessary war, and anything less than victory is unacceptable. But it will not take place "over there" in some sequestered place away from where we all live and where something called "the economy" operates. The war (or at least part of it) will take place on our soil, and it will be the locomotive of economic activity, pulling everything along with it.
The good news is, the recession will be muted by the expenditures of vast sums of federal dollars. Guns and butter and technology will lead to a kind of boon. But riding shotgun down this avalanche of money will be the sadness that fear bequeaths. Happy days will not be here again for a long, long time. The world changed forever on September 11. And Americans now know what the Irish have known forever: The world eventually breaks your heart.
John Ellis (jellis@fastcompany.com) is a writer and consultant based in New York.
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