Authoritarianism can happen in United States

Michael RostonPublished: Monday February 19, 2007

In an excerpt from his forthcoming book, Salon columnist Joe Conason says that the changes in political power set in motion by President George W. Bush have brought the United States closer to a future in which authoritarianism is possible. Conason warns that for the first time since Nixon, Americans have "reason to doubt the future of democracy and the rule of law in our own country."

The excerpt comes from Conason's new book It Can Happen Here: Authoritarian Peril in the Age of Bush. Conaston states up front that the idea of an American slide into authoritarianism is not based in any paranoia, but comes because the current president "has repeatedly asserted and exercised authority that he does not possess under the Constitution he swore to uphold."

Conason says there is growing public anxiety and anger about the Bush administration's use and abuse of power. Two events that have particularly raised public concern are "the misbegotten, horrifically mismanaged war in Iraq [and] the heartless mishandling of the Hurricane Katrina disaster." He notes that "we do not know the full dimensions of the scandals behind Iraq and Katrina, because the Republican leaders of the Senate and the House of Representatives abdicated the traditional congressional duties of oversight and investigation."

Their unwillingness to take on the President on these issues was due to an acquiescence with authoritarianism, he writes. He says the "style" of the Bush regime is seen in its "almost casual contempt for democratic and lawful norms; an expanding appetite for executive control at the expense of constitutional balances; a reckless impulse to corrupt national institutions with partisan ideology; and an ugly tendency to smear dissent as disloyalty."

Conason doesn't believe that the 2006 turnover of the Congress to Democratic control will be enough to push back against Bush's authoritarian turn. He points to the Senate's narrow Democratic majority as a major obstacle to checking the White House. The question he asks is, "In the era of terror alerts, religious fundamentalism, and endless warfare...whether we are still the brave nation...or whether our courage, and our luck, have finally run out."

The full excerpt can be read after viewing an advertisement at Salon's website.