FIXED IDEAS - AMERICA SINCE 9.11

In Fixed Ideas Joan Didion describes how, since September 11, 2001, there has been a determined effort by the administration to promote an imperial America—a 'New Unilateralism'—and how, in many parts of America, there is now a 'disconnect' between the government and citizens.

'Americans' recognized even then 'immediately after 9/11', with flames still visible in lower Manhattan, that the words 'bipartisanship' and 'national unity' had come to mean acquiescence to the administration's preexisting agenda—for example the imperative for further tax cuts, the necessity for Arctic drilling, the systematic elimination of regulatory and union protections, even the funding for the missile shield.'