The NY Salon will be presenting ‘Divided America?’ at The Battle of Ideas 2005 in London

While George Bush is internationally mocked for his lack of worldliness and inarticulate public speaking, in the US his term in office has seen him flounder from one crisis to the next: intelligence failure over 9/11, a prolonged war in Iraq, inability to find WMDs, mistreatment of captives at Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo Bay. Surely all the Democrats needed to do was turn up to win the 2004 presidential election? Yet, they comprehensively failed to capitalise on the weakness of the incumbent president, offering no credible alternative course of action. Meanwhile, political debate between Republicans and Democrats has intensified. Some have argued that we are witnessing a resurrection of American politics with measurable increases at the polls. However, while the voices are getting louder the political differences between the parties are getting smaller. How do we understand this and what is it that the Republicans have that the Democrats haven’t?

Please click to read the article ‘Divided America’ by our two participants