Reason.tv: Reason-Rupe Poll - Do Americans Feel Safer After 9/11, TSA, and Foreign Wars?

Polling Director Emily Ekins analyzes post-9/11 feelings of homeland security

As the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks arrives, do Americans feel safer after the creation of the Department of Homeland Security and the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) and military interventions in Afghanistan and Iraq?

According to the new Reason-Rupe poll of 1,200 U.S. adults, "62 percent say we have less personal freedom today" but "81 percent have faith that the security measures implemented" has made America safer from terrorist attacks. Reason's Katherine Mangu-Ward talks with Emily Ekins, Reason's polling director, to find out what post-9/11 America thinks about today's national security, personal freedoms, and the Iraq War.

This Reason-Rupe poll  surveyed a random, national sample of 1,200 adults by telephone (790 on landlines, 410 on cell phones) over August 9-18, 2011. The overall results have a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points. The full Reason-Rupe survey is online here and ongoing analysis is online here.

This Reason Foundation project is made possible thanks to the generous support of the Arthur N. Rupe Foundation.

Shot by Anthony Fisher and Joshua Swain; edited by Swain. About 4 minutes.

Go to Reason.tv for downloadable versions, and subscribe to Reason.tv's YouTube Channel to receive automatic updates when new material goes live.

Comments

[Tim]

I feel less safe because carrying the wrong toiletry into an airport may get me sent to prison.

[Fist of Etiquette]

I feel MORE safe knowing you aren't on a plane flying over my head with a sneaked bottle of Pert Plus with Conditioner and DEATH onboard. Or worse, that shampoo that causes orgasms.

[Tim]

Tell me more about this shampoo...

[Fist of Etiquette]

Get the rape horn ready.

[Captain Obvious]

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/.....deals.html

Green Tech company bankrupt after .5 Billion in gov't subsidies

[kinnath]

Do you even read the arcticles at H&R before posting?

[smz]

isn't it Obvious?

[Mainer]

the squirrels ate Captain Obvious

[Fist of Etiquette]

I don't think Tim reads the posts, either. There, I said it.

[Tim]

Sometimes I have to read work related work.

[kinnath]

And now I'm on the record blasting Tim 😉

[Tim]

(shakes fist)

[Captain Obvious]

I only posted that here because I couldn't find a link to submit it to an editor/someone.

I'm glad it caught their attention, anyways.

[Obvious Captain]

Wow, they actually banned me by IP. I only posted that link here because I couldn't find a place to submit it to an editor.

Nice work, men!

[Episiarch]

Of course they banned you by IP. How else would they do it?

[SugarFree]

Interesting. That's was a pretty benign post to banniate, considering the drivel, threats, and incoherent hate we have on here all the time.

[Hugh Akston]

You can mention my name, SugarFree. Everyone knows you're talking about me.

Also, I had to look up banniate.

[SugarFree]

*banninate* Retard typing strikes again.

[Almanian]

I had to go look up that word, too...

[Almanian]

FUCK YOU YOU FUCKING FUCK! GO FUCK YOURSELF! i CAN'T WAIT TILL THE BANHAMMER SQUASHES YOUR HEAD, YOU FUCKING BLOGWHORE FUCK!

Have a nice day.

[Mainer]

I was going to reply to Hugh, but I couldn't remember if cunt face is one word, two words, or hyphenated.......

[Almanian]

Any and all, Mainer, any and all...

[SugarFree]

The important thing to remember about Hugh is that he always smells like he's having his period. Because he is. He is always having his period.

[Hugh Akston]

Does anyone know where I can get a good pickle in LA?

[SugarFree]

Buying pickles is too mainstream, I make my own.

[Episiarch]

So you're a pickle hipster? A hipicklester? A pickster?

[SugarFree]

I pickled my handlebar mustache.

[Episiarch]

Did you handlebar your pickle?

[Mainer]

tickle your pickle

[SugarFree]

Hipster white girl rap.

And people try to tell that a benevolent god exists...

[Hugh Akston]

Actually I have a couple of hipicklester friends in Pasadena that pickle every goddamned thing that comes out of the ground. Onions, squash, celery, everything.

Needless to say, I bring my own appetizers to their parties. If I wanted every night to end with the taste of vinegar and brine, I'd still be married to Angelina Jolie.

[Episiarch]

"Just drivin' around in Jon Voight's car daughter..."

[Obvious Captain]

Sigh. Whatever. It's their site. Perhaps they recognize the fact that people come here to read that drivel.

[Fist of Etiquette]

What was the nature of the drivel? I would have followed the link if I knew at the time it was something verboten. I've very contrarian.

[Fist of Etiquette]

I'm so contrarian that I refuse to use the contractions people expect.

(If you think they're watching you and can't say the link, touch your nose twice.)

[SugarFree]

Contrari'n.

[Hank]

Goddammit. I miss all the good stuff. I was at a training seminar for the entirety of Blink Tag / .gif Day too.

[Hugh Akston]

There was never a blink tag day. Not in this universe anyway. Well, there was, but Mark Waid retconned it out when he rebooted Gillespie's origin.

[Hank]

Speaking of, the Jim Lee Justice League should be in my mailbox by Tuesday. Suck it, grown-ups who don't subscribe to comic books anymore!

[Amakudari]

Blinking text was available on that day, too, but only FF and Opera would support it (because it's a CSS style where browser implementation is optional instead of the <blink> tag).

And now you know.

[PIRS]

"but "81 percent have faith that the security measures implemented" has made America safer from terrorist attacks."

God this is disappointing. Far too many people have been successfully indoctrinated. We have a lot of educating to do if we want to be free.

[Mainer]

I blame TV

[PIRS]

That may be part of it. I think a larger part of it is government schools. Even long before 9/11 they had "security measures" that supposedly made the inmates safer but in reality were more about control. And the "civics" textbooks drip with pro-government propaganda.

[Mainer]

So you hate children as well as our dedicated public servants, is that it ?

[PIRS]

🙂 So much so that I don't want them to be treated like prisoners.

[fyngyrz]

Tv? Good grief man, just look at the Gaussian. Go find someone of 100 IQ to talk to, do so for an hour or so, this way you'll know what it means... then realize that more than half the country is 100 IQ or lower. They get told the TSA makes them safer, they believe it because they can't figure it out for themselves. You will *never* educate these people out of their preconceptions. The only hope is genetic engineering... and that'll take a couple generations to fix the problem once (if) it becomes available. Unless they can work a retrovirus on the general public. Now there's an epidemic worth wishing for.

[Almanian]

I blame Bush

[PIRS]

"I blame Bush"

Actually, in this case he does deserve some blame. I know that has become a clich? but in this case it is at least partly deserved. He signed the PATRIOT Act and made the case for self-slavery to the American People.

[kinnath]

The sheep want the shepherd, need the shepherd, live for the shepherd.

[PIRS]

+5

[Invisible Finger]

We have a lot of educating to do if we want to be free.

Educating is what got us here. Doing more of the same and expecting a different result is what a progressive would do.

[PIRS]

"Educating is what got us here."

In terms of public perceptions "here" is at least better than 2002. Remember 2002? You could be lynched for suggesting that America's foreign policy might have motivated the 9/11 hijackers. Education at least got us this far. What would you suggest other than education?

[Mainer]

"Obviously" not

[Almanian]

I'm sorry, you had me at "Emily Ekins", and I didn't go any further.
You were sayi...no, never mind. I don't care.

*just gazes at the lovely Emily*

[Sue]

We are much safer becuse we are better screened for prohibited items before to get on a plane, have to show id to go in moany buildings, etc. and many security measures. Also, we have been fighting the terrorists responsible for 911 in Iraq.

[Mainer]

I'm not sure what a moany building is, but I want to go there.

[Apatheist]

I'm thoroughly convinced.

[Invisible Finger]

Would Emily Ekins take my pole?

[Hugh Akston]

Stop that.

[Mainer]

pole ? is that a euphemism for pickle ?

[Tim]

I'm sobbing my eyes out, You're all so cruel.

[Tim]

Labor day is ruined for me, I hope you are all happy.