Paul Mero

In looking back on the year 2017, Americans have witnessed political, cultural and economic cycles like few other years in recent memory. Personally, I began this year by unaffiliating with the Republican Party. Trump was too much for me to bear. He turned out to be the president many of us thought he would be. He remains ill suited to be the leader of the free world. In fact, I predicted earlier this year that Trump would not make it to the end of the year – either he would resign or be booted from office. Yet, there he remains. read more

Over the past few months, I have been working with a few colleagues to develop a new “Utah Poverty Compact” modeled after the immigration compact released in 2010. The immigration compact changed public opinion nearly overnight. My hope is that a new poverty compact would have the same effect on public opinion and policy makers.

Among my several justifications for creating a new poverty compact, two societal aspects are often overlooked.

First, a poverty compact has the ability to decrease class differences in Utah and set an example for the nation. The nation is torn apart by class warfare. One article has received a lot of attention recently for its call to violence against the rich. The author writes, read more

Where do we go from here now that Roy Moore has been given a justifiably ignominious political burial and the sexual harassment genie is out of the bottle for good? How long will the victims of harassment and abuse continue to come out of the shadows? The stream must be endless. How much harassment and abuse do you think exists in America today? My guess is a lot.

But, as usual, I am more interested in the tougher questions surrounding these atrocities and controversies. For instance, frankly, I do not know how much longer these accusations will last. While I believe that harassment and abuse are rampant today, I am not so sure about the desire of every victim to go public. We see so many Hollywood stars each of whom has their story of harassment and abuse. Naturally, they get a lot of attention. They are in the attention business. read more

Do you want to know why so many Americans identify as independent or, here in Utah, unaffiliated voters? The reason is that partisanship never serves the common good. By its very nature, partisanship is insular, exclusionary and selfish. It encourages bad behavior in the name of a perverse sense of loyalty and it does not serve the public interest.

Of course, the best current example of how partisanship turns otherwise intelligent people into flaming idiots is the Roy Moore candidacy in Alabama. The Republican Senate candidate is accused of gross improprieties with underage girls. The accusations are numerous, detailed and verified – so blatant, in fact, that there is little doubt about their veracity. Politics is not a court of law. It is the court of public opinion. Roy Moore should quit his race. But he won’t. Furthermore, Republican faithful, from the White House to the local courthouse, stand by their man. read more

For many old white male culture warriors, such as myself, the daily streams of sexual harassment allegations are “I told you so” moments. For over 30 years, we have forecast the consequences of family breakdown and the Sexual Revolution. Today, we have every justification to ask, “What did you expect?” Nearly every male accused of sexual harassment and assault is either a long-time defender of women’s rights or gay rights or both – champions of sexual liberation.

Of course, to be fair, some male Hollywood and media stars that champion liberal causes are also happily married and monogamous. But they are so comparatively few to be rightly celebrated as novelties. We admire the morality of Hollywood elder statesman Tom Hanks, on screen and off, but his marital fidelity is the exception to the rule in the star-studded entertainment industry. read more

The continuing saga of Senate candidate Judge Roy Moore no longer requires a set up to explain the controversy. We do not need anyone to tell us what he allegedly did to a number of young women and girls nearly forty years ago. Furthermore, a reasonable person does not need to know more than the Washington Post stories to know that, at the very least, Judge Moore should withdraw from his Senate race in Alabama.

Even so, some issues still need explaining. For instance, what is wrong with the Christian right in this country? Why did they ignore or defend Donald Trump’s sins with women and why now do they ignore or defend Judge Moore? On the other hand, is an avowed person of faith, as Judge Moore, allowed to repent? As difficult as it might be to believe, Judge Moore’s failed memory could be the result of his moving past his bad behavior. One sign of this could be how his wife stands foursquare behind him. And, finally, does everyone understand why, regardless of innocence or guilt, Judge Moore should step down? read more

In the aftermath of the Texas shooting, perhaps now is a good time to revisit how a free society should respond to mental illness. The Texas shooter, Devin Kelly, had a long and documented history of mental illness and violence. He beat his wife regularly and even beat his little boy so bad that he fractured the boy’s skull. Kelly was dishonorably discharged from the military for his illness-induced violence.

Most folks in the little town where he was from said they knew something was wrong with Kelly. A childhood friend of his wrote, “To be completely honest, I’m really not surprised this happened, and I don’t think anyone who knew him is very surprised either.” Think on that statement. Anyone who knew him should not be surprised this happened. What happened was that Kelly mercilessly murdered 26 people – and, yet, nobody was surprised that he murdered all those people? Maybe that should be the first sign for intervention. If you are not at all surprised a person could murder 26 people in cold blood, maybe you ought to pick up the phone and call somebody. read more

What happens if Robert Mueller’s investigation into the Trump campaign and Russia proves collusion but nobody believes him? Why are conservatives so quick to indict Hillary Clinton about her Russian connections but give Donald Trump a pass? Has the idea of objective truth become passé? Are we at an unrecoverable point in time when tribal politics has laid waste to objective truth? The answers to these serious questions will determine freedom in America for generations to come.

The basis for every conspiracy theory is that somebody is lying about something and that the people tasked with holding people accountable are a part of the conspiracy. Hence, in Trump’s Russia connection, we cannot believe Jake Tapper from CNN but we must believe Alex Jones, the king of conspiracy theorists. Tapper is out to get Trump while Alex Jones is simply telling the truth. Anyone who voted for Trump and/or believes that Washington D.C. is a swamp of corruption needs to believe that Tapper is the enemy and Jones is a truth-teller. read more