It is usually long after an empire ends that historians sift out the reasons for its decline and demise. In Best of Enemies James Graham traces the current problems of the American polity to 1968 and the atmosphere surrounding the conventions of that year which selected the two presidential candidates. The decision by ABC, the least popular national television network, to include as part of its coverage debates between the novelist and playwright, Gore Vidal, representing the left, and William F. Buckley Jr, author and political pundit, representing the right, is seen to begin the decline of news into entertainment and the rise of current ideological ghetto media such as Fox television. Similarly, the two formerly "big tent" parties become increasingly ideological. The Republicans come to represent a libertarian conservatism that appeals to an alienated underclass, and the Democrats find themselves caught between the old left concerned with protecting workers and supporting