Book Review: It Can Happen Here: Authoritarian Peril in the Age of Bush
Publisher: Thomas Dunne Books
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0312356056
ISBN-13: 978-0312356057
Joe Conason's It Can Happen Here is an intense and startling look into the depths of the Bush Administration's assault on our democracy. It is a must-read for anyone who values America's democratic way of life and a stark reminder of why it is important to pay attention to politics.
Launching from Sinclair Lewis' 1935 fictional tale, It Can't Happen Here, about America as a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by "clownish, sinister, and brutal homegrown fascism, spurred by patriots and preachers," Conason proves how fiction has become reality. Beginning with the tragedy of September 11 and the "Post 9/11 Worldview of Karl Rove" he reminds readers that Rove used the terror attacks and the consequent war in Iraq to create the propaganda machine for George Bush's 2004 re-election. The beating of the war drums prior to the invasion of Iraq, now known as the "permanent war," also provided a convenient distraction from the barrage of corporate scandals in the summer of 2002. Furthermore, Conason puts front and center Rove's primary goal of complete domination of American politics by the Republican Party reflected in his statement, "it is not our job to seek peaceful co-existence with the left. Our job is to remove them from power permanently."
Taking a close look at George Bush, Dick Cheney and their willing and subservient staff, Conason illustrates vividly that power through secrecy and the abolition of our basic rights are their first order of business. Using the Nixonian style of leadership, their motto is "the president's will is law." A classic Bush appointee, yet almost forgotten character, is Attorney General John Ashcroft, notable for his fervent push for the passage of the USA Patriot Act only eight days after 9/11. He was replaced by the ever obedient Alberto Gonzales who is defined by his disdain for the laws he has sworn to uphold, with former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld cheering him all the way.
Conason introduces a sordid assembly of secret right-wing groups that are co-mingled with the supreme elite of corporate powers, top military leaders, and zealous evangelicals with hoards of loyal followers who help dictate domestic and foreign policy, and have a heavy hand in the onslaught of right wing judicial appointees. Conason delves into how the FISA courts and the Geneva Conventions are now "quaint" notions, swept aside in the name of national security. American citizens are now spied on by various federal agencies with no controls and Congress has been ineffectual in stopping it.
And then there's the media. Conason does a thorough job of describing the unending propaganda that has been shoved in the faces of the American citizenry, with Fox News leading the pack and the administration-produced news videos masqueraded as "real news," with various paid pundits pushing the president's agenda both at home and abroad.
For anyone who is not convinced that we are headed toward a dictatorship under the reign of George Bush and the neocons, It Can Happen Here will demonstrate clearly how our Constitution and civil liberties have taken a beating and that more is undoubtedly on the horizon. Can it happen here? This book clearly illustrates that the foundation for it is in place. Will it happen here? That's up to the American people.
-Review by Bettina Rausa
