Age of Anxiety

A spate of recent terrorism events--the bombing of a French tanker, the destruction of a nightclub in Bali, an FBI warning of a "spectacular" Al Qaeda action and the surfacing of a new Osama bin Laden tape indicating that the Al Qaeda leader is still alive--has pushed up the already elevated national anxiety level. The New York Times reported that Gothamites are "more fearful" these days, even though the crime rate has dropped. "All across the political spectrum," says Fred Siegel, a history professor, "there is just an uneasiness, a sense that something is happening, though people can't put their finger on it." Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly attributes the uneasiness to fear of terrorism.

In the recent election, George W. Bush strummed voters' anxieties in sync with political adviser Karl Rove's score, derived from polls showing people believe the GOP is stronger on national security than the Democrats. And just this week Bush won passage of his Homeland Security Bill, even though its most immediate results will be to remove job protections from thousands of federal workers and line the pockets of GOP corporate contributors.

In the same issue of the Times was this headline: "Are You Safer Today Than a Year Ago?" Good question. The battered Democrats should have asked it. The response of Tom Ridge, Bush's domestic security adviser, was a Pollyannaish: "Every single day, the nation gets safer." Really? Consider:

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