What We've Lost

Book excerpt: What We've Lost addresses the fragile state of U.S. democracy with a critical review of the Bush administration by one of our leading magazine editors, Graydon Carter. Carter has expressed his deep dissatisfaction with the current state of the nation in his monthly editor's letters in Vanity Fair--which have aroused widespread comment--and now provides a sweeping, painstakingly detailed account of the ruinous effects of this president. The invasion of Iraq, which has proven so costly for the U.S. in lives, dollars, and international standing, is only the tip of the iceberg. It is the war at home, a quiet, covert, and in many ways more lasting and damaging war, that Carter is most wary of. The Bush White House has chipped away at decades' worth of advances in personal rights, women's rights, the economy, and the environment. It is difficult to point to a single element of American society that comes under federal jurisdiction that is not worse off now than it was an administration ago, from civil liberties to the economy, foreign affairs to the environment. Carter discusses these topics and many more with great cogency and specificity, detailing what Bush's radical agenda means for America's future--and its future standing in the world. What We've Lost is not the position paper of a policy wonk or a pundit, but the impassioned argument of a concerned citizen in response to the most precarious political crisis of our time.