A Fateful Election

By Russell Baker, David Bromwich, Mark Danner, Andrew Delbanco, Joan Didion, Ronald Dworkin et al.

For an election in which so much is at stake, we asked some of our contributors for their views.
—The Editors

• Russell Baker
• David Bromwich
• Mark Danner
• Andrew Delbanco
• Joan Didion
• Ronald Dworkin
• Frances FitzGerald
• Timothy Garton Ash
• Paul Krugman
• Joseph Lelyveld
• Darryl Pinckney
• Thomas Powers
• Michael Tomasky
• Garry Wills

Russell Baker

The new century has opened with a pervasive sense of American decline, and for good reason. The history of the Bush years is anything but a tonic for the spirit: the nation deceived by official lies into endless Middle Eastern warfare, loss of America's good reputation around the world, erosion of the middle class, astounding budget deficits, growing financial dependence on China, that sinister power-grabbing operation in the vice-president's office, torture....

And now the collapse of Wall Street, home office of triumphant world capitalism, its famous masters of the universe forced to endure the humiliation of asking for government handouts. Serious people who understand these things speak of the worst calamity since the Great Depression.