Political legitimacy and polarization without 9/11

In this episode of the Chuck ToddCast, Chuck tackles one of the most consequential counterfactuals in modern history: what if 9/11 never happened? He explores how the attacks fundamentally altered the American psyche, shattered a post–Cold War sense of security, and transformed how Americans consume news, driving the demand for instant information and accelerating the technologies that now dominate our lives. The conversation examines how U.S. politics, foreign policy, and polarization might have evolved without the War on Terror—no Patriot Act, no Department of Homeland Security, no Iraq War—and whether the political forces that produced figures like Trump and Obama would have emerged at all. From global relationships with Russia and China to the delayed reckoning over economic inequality and partisan division, this episode traces the ripple effects of an event that reshaped everything, and asks what might have filled the vacuum if it had never occurred.

Finally, Chuck reacts to his Miami Hurricanes upsetting Ohio State in the college football playoff and makes his predictions for the upcoming games.

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Timeline:

(Timestamps may vary based on advertisements)

00:00 Chuck Todd’s introduction

03:00 “What if” 9/11 never happened?

03:45 9/11 changed how Americans consumed information

04:30 9/11 was the first true “hit” on the homeland

05:30 9/11 create a new sense of vulnerability in America

06:45 The trauma from 9/11 changed the American psyche

08:45 Prior to 9/11, America was living in a post cold-war calm

09:30 In 2000, the west was trying to court Russia into joining them

10:15 Both parties will bullish on integrating China into the world

11:45 Bush would have been more western hemisphere focused

12:45 Without 9/11, Washington would have been more polarized

13:45 The Bush presidency essentially began on 9/11

15:30 9/11 triggered a “need” for immediate information

16:30 Social media is created to provide immediate info

17:15 There’s no Patriot Act, Iraq war, War on Terror without 9/11

18:30 There would be no Department of Homeland Security

19:45 Homeland Security eventually became an immigration agency

21:45 The isolationist strain of MAGA may not materialize

23:15 Some of the responses to 9/11 led to rise of MAGA politics

25:00 9/11 created a new sense of urgency for following the news

26:15 9/11 sped up the adoption of new information technologies

28:15 Do we not have Trump or Obama without hyper-engaged politics?

29:00 John Kerry probably isn’t the nominee in 2004 without 9/11

30:30 What replaces 9/11 if it never happened?

30:45 Financial crisis still happens anyways

31:45 9/11 delayed the “uniparty reckoning”

32:45 Occupy Wall Street would supplant Tea Party as driving force in 2010

34:00 Without Iraq War, there’s less distinction between Clinton & Obama

35:30 9/11 delayed polarization, economic issues by a few years

37:30 “If 9/11 never happened” final conclusions

40:30 “What Ifs” left on the cutting room floor

49:15 Chuck’s college football playoff reaction

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