Last week on NPR’s All Things Considered, a conservative commentator said some amazing things. Listening to his commentary, I was surprised how easily he had simply swallowed the prevailing conservative stories of his (and my) youth. If you doubt the power of our narratives about ourselves, consider that it took this man 27 years to question his approach–the even question his approach.

He was embarrassed by Jimmy Carter’s words during the Iran hostage crisis. He was soothed by Ronald Reagan’s victory speech. He accepted the simplistic notions of weak Democrats and strong Republicans. It took years after 9/11 for him to see George Bush as shameful, weak, and incompetant.

Rather than saying, “No kidding, dumbass,” I offer his astonishing turnaround as an example of what might happen if we take a nonviolent approach to telling conservatives why we make the choices we do.

As President Bush marched the country toward war with Iraq, even some voices on the Right warned that this was a fool’s errand. I dismissed them angrily. I thought them unpatriotic.

But almost four years later, I see that I was the fool.

In Iraq, this Republican President, for whom I voted twice, has shamed our country with weakness and incompetence, and the consequences of his failure will be far, far worse than anything Carter did.

The fraud, the mendacity, the utter haplessness of our government’s conduct of the Iraq war have been shattering to me.

It wasn’t supposed to turn out like this, not under a Republican President. Not after Reagan.

I turn 40 next month. Middle age at last. A time of discovering limits, finitude. I expected that. What I did not expect was to live to see the limits and finitude of American power revealed so painfully. I did not expect Vietnam.

As I sat in my office last night watching President Bush deliver his big speech, I seethed over the waste, the folly, the stupidity of this war.

I had a heretical thought for a conservative: that I have got to teach my kids that they must never, ever take Presidents and Generals at their word; that their government will send them to kill and die for noble-sounding rot; that they have to question authority.

On the walk to the parking garage, it hit me. Hadn’t the hippies tried to tell my generation that? Why had we scorned them so blithely?

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I may have been half asleep, but I was sure this is what I read in the Salt Lake Tribune this morning: GOP vows to be more evil in ‘07. I didn’t question it, but I thought, good for the Tribune for daring to print it. Then I stood up and looked more closely at the headline.

Oh. GOP vows to be more civil in ‘07. That, I will have to see to believe. I heard the name “Chris Buttars” this morning on the radio. I shivered.

It’s the opening day of the Utah Legislative Session.

Unlike other state legislatures that work all year (or at least meet all year), in Utah we have just 45 days in January and February of every year to spend our abundance of money and legislate righteousness. (Chris Buttars says don’t prohibit the right to religious expression but he and others want to prohibit expression of solidarity through Gay-Straight Alliances at high schools. It’s important to be selective in order to create [self-]righteousness.)

Thanks to Green Jenni for pointing out that the League of Women Voters of Utah provides an email update during the session (as well as radio and online updates).

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I wanted to think that a sweeping Democratic victory last November meant we faced less danger from the creeping fascism of creepy fascists. I was wrong, of course. The drive for authoritarian control is still apparent in a huge number of stories outside the average top ten–and sometimes lurking in the headlines.

Find a religious authoritarian under a variety of rocks.

• Evangelical Christians are using various levels of government to preach to captive Americans, resulting in unconstitutional use of taxpayer funds to indoctrinate prisoners and crossing the constitutional line separating church and state.

• The Pentagon Prayer Team, shown in the Christian Embassy video that is getting some notice, makes no pretense of separating church and state. It is quite obvious that they prefer no separation at all–as long as the church running the state is evangelical Christian, naturally.

• Efforts to exert influence over police and military result in evangelical Chistians holding at least 50% of chaplaincy appontments. So far. That is just the tip of the influence, of course. Do you think being part of the military or police should imply that one is: a) Republican, and b) evangelical Christian? It might be easy to say that it shouldn’t, but being honest about your own experience, does it?

• George W. Bush gets his orders from a higher power rather than from the U.S. citizens who (sort of) elected him. (See Mike Luckovich’s take on this higher power.) Even Spider-Man knows a super-villain when he sees one.

Rather than calling these people on their attempts to skirt the laws of the U.S. that separate church and state, those traditionally outside the evangelical right are courting them. I’m thinking of Mitt Romney, willing to do anything radically conservative, it would seem, in order to gain the influence needed to be run credibly for President.

Do you need more information than a few articles can give you? Read a few books. There are many books on the radical religious right and their Christian Reconstructionism. These are just two that have been released recently. Follow the links from them to find a web of alarm.

The Theocons: Secular American Under Siege by Damon Linker. Read an excerpt. Read reviews.

American Fascists by Chris Hedges.

DING DING DING.

We need more than alarm. We need clarity and action. We must be determined to fight those who attempt to undermine our rights.

How far are we down the road to fascism? And, what can we do about it?

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I really need to write about theoconspiracy. I’m hanging on to that one more day. One more day. I’ll use two tidbits to lead in.

Today, I just want to offer the fake Weekly Radio Address, in which “George W. Bush” hopes Congress will give him the tools he needs, and he mentions the tools he already has–veto, signing statements, ignore, and make believe. I admit that I still miss That’s My Bush, but this makes me feel a tiny bit better.

And, I want to offer one article that is worth reading thoroughly, including the comments: “Will Bush Provoke a Constitutional Crisis?” This is part of the ongoing thinking ALL of us need to do about the STILL CREEPING FASCISM. The comments (OK, most of the comments) reassure me that we really are aware and active enough as a people to see and prevent the worst of what is possible. What has to happen before the Congress calls these criminals on what they are doing? Will they try to use ignore and make believe to deal with Congress when called?

Hold the executive branch accountable. That’s all I’m asking. No pardons.

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I have a week to decide, which freak show should I follow: Sundance or the Utah State Legislature?

The Sundance Film Festival runs January 18 - 28 in Salt Lake City, Odgen, Park City, and, of course, Sundance Resort. Ticket sales for Locals Only ended yesterday.

The Utah State Legislature meets January 15 - Februrary 28 in Salt Lake City. Watch the Utah Democratic Party and Utah Democratic Progressive Caucus websites for news of what happens during the session. Good luck finding a non-Republican play-by-play site to follow what happens. I hear rumors that the Democratic Senators are planning something interesting.

I may follow Mitt Romney and grab a diet Coke so I can keep my eyes on both. But, don’t expect me to write about them (much). There is so much going on nationally and globally that it’s tough to keep one’s eyes on one’s own paper.

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