Since the OP is about big domestic terrorist attacks, what are some examples to back up this claim? I do agree that suicidal ideologues are in short supply, and that is why I think we haven’t had attacks on the level of 9/11.
Somewhere along the way, people got the idea that it’s TSA vs. Al Qaeda (no ‘u’ in Qaeda, btw). Somehow, they think that if it’s terrorism, it’s gotta be AQ and if it’s been stopped, it must have been the TSA. Such a view is bizarre, simplistic, and betrays a lack of education on the topic.
No big attacks in the USA since 2001?
Security is very effective at taking unattended bags. I turned my back for a minute and mine was gone. I immediately ran to the security office as my plane was about to board. Already they had completely unpacked, itemized, and categorized everything in my suitcase, making it impossible to repack in under 10 minutes. This happened in less than 5 minutes including the time it took them to transport the bag across the small airport. Assuming I ran the same speed as the cart, they did it in under 2 minutes. Very efficient at delaying customers. Since everything was organized differently from the way it was originally packed, there was no way for me to know if anything was missing in time to catch my plane. I was forced to trust them. That’ll teach me to drink from the water fountain!
That’s good. Never again will Al Qaeda will take down a skyscraper by leaving an unattended bag in an airport.
Or perhaps, 9/11 was deliberately a one-hit wonder and the “terrorists” were never interested in anything beyond a one shot deal. There is no need to attack us on a grand scale. Just one hit is all it took. Look at the money and resources we’ve thrown at “terrorism” since 9/11. Sure, there are known smaller “attacks” and threats. Just enough to keep us spending more and more money. The morning events of 9/11 started an attack that continues to this day.
It’s not the attack. It’s the fear, generated by the occasional one-person attempts (and copycats), along with the military-industrial complex (MIC) that feeds on the fear for its own continued dominance of tax dollars. That’s not to say there probably have been a number of thwarted attacks, thanks to that very MIC and greater vigilance. Still, we’ve had a considerable number of opportunities for massive, successful attacks involving only one or two people, with minimal planning, expense and exposure (before the fact).
I think America is so enamored in itself and The Big One! we for get the possibility that they just aren’t interested in us on our own soil.
What?? I’m dumbfounded by this idea. There have been several attempted attacks on the U.S. since September 11th and tons of pronouncements by Al Qaeda leaders over the years. How do you just hand-wave those away? Richard Reid tried to blow up a plane three months after September 11th. I realize people don’t always know why these guys are doing what they are doing since their ideology is more than a little confused, but there is a limit to how much you can do in terms of interpreting their motives. They’ve made it about as clear as they can that they would be very happy to hit the continental U.S. again. They were successful once partly because of planning and partly because they were lucky that not enough people were paying attention, and they haven’t succeeded against partly because of a huge increase in counterterrorism efforts internationally, attacks on Al Qaeda, and some luck. They still came close once or twice. There’s no basis for saying they stopped trying or never intended to do it again.
Slate had an interesting article on this a while back that laid out 8 theories, from not troubling to extremely troubling
That’s not airport security, that’s just New York 
That’s what I thought at first too. But it was done so efficiently and quickly past the security checkpoint I figured it must have been an organized group. They could have at least waited a minute for me to turn around after taking a drink! You gotta remove these potential bombs fast before they detonate…