Democrats are now more likely than Republicans to say the government is doing very or fairly well in reducing the threat of terrorism. Fully 84% of Democrats give the government positive ratings compared with 64% of Republicans.

During the Bush administration, the partisan gap was reversed. In February 2008, 84% of Republicans and 57% of Democrats expressed positive views of the government's anti-terror efforts; the partisan differences were even larger (46 points) in January 2007.

There also have been partisan shifts in other attitudes and perceptions related to terrorism. Currently, 50% of Republicans mostly credit luck, rather than effective government policies (37% of Republicans), for why there has not been another attack since 2001. Among Democrats, 44% say it is mostly because of government policies while about as many (35%) say it is because the country has been lucky so far.

In August 2006, a majority of Republicans (58%) said the United States had not suffered another terror attack mostly because of government policies, while 54% of Democrats said this was mostly because of luck.