It Can Happen Here: Authoritarian Peril in the Age of Bush

Sinclair Lewis's 1935 novel It Can't Happen Here envisaged a right-wing populist president, advised by a cunning political strategist and backed by a cynical alliance of religious fundamentalists and corporations, who uses security threats to consolidate dictatorial powers, destroy civil liberties and establish folksy fascism. This is a virtual blueprint for the current Bush administration, a "corrupt and authoritarian ruling clique" that accords the president "the prerogatives of a king," argues political columnist Conason (Big Lies) in this lively, if overwrought, j'accuse. He surveys a long list of what he sees as Bush administration affronts to freedom and democracy: military tribunals, torture, warrantless wiretapping, politically show more motivated terrorism alerts, a war based on fraudulent pretexts, the Abramoff scandals, the handover of policy making to business interests and Christian zealots, tight secrecy coupled with a dissemination of propaganda through the right-wing media and a lawless contempt for constitutional constraints on the presidency. His indictment often hits home, but it's broad and indiscriminate, treating biased journalism, religion-tinged politics and lobbying scandals as signs of creeping fascism rather than age-old commonplaces of democracy. Conason delivers his usual cogent, hard-hitting critique of Republican misdeeds, but his insinuations of authoritarianism, coming just as the Republicans have been voted out of power in Congress, seem badly ti show less

Conanson's point is well taken: it can happen here. It is happening here, as he ably documents. Ironically, I think the reason I felt this book was somewhat scattershot and needed a tighter focus on some of the more urgent issues, is that Conanson tried to touch on the vast range of the Bush Administration's corruption and mendacity; the sheer volume of scandalous misconduct meant a description of what scurried out each time a rock was turned over had to be brief in order to accommodate a description of the next rock.

Sure, Conason show his bias here, but if you just read the facts presented, cut out the extraneous matter, and forgive his blind spots, this is a useful recitation of recent events that every US citizen ignores at his/her own peril. Caution: if you get all your news through FOX network, you'll either be shocked at what you've not been told, or you won't believe most of what's in this book.

Os.