Niall Ferguson: The ‘Barbenheimer’ Election

I am sorry. I’ve seen this movie before. Or rather, both of these movies. Last year.

On one side, it’s:

I’m a Barbie girl in a Barbie world
Life in plastic, it’s fantastic
. . . Imagination, life is your creation
Come on Barbie, let’s go party.

And on the other, it’s:

Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds.

Except that this isn’t Barbie versus Oppenheimer, the great moviegoers’ dilemma of 2023. It’s the presidential election of 2024, the nationwide executive search for the leader of what we once called the free world.