Paul Mero

Several years ago I attended a three-day seminar about writing in general and screenplays in particular. My interest was more about how to tell an interesting story. So much of public policy is dry and boring. I thought I could benefit from some expert storytelling.

The seminar was presented by famed Hollywood screenwriter Robert McKee – if you saw the movie Adaptation you’ve heard of Robert McKee. When his book, titled Story, was published nearly 20 years ago, he then claimed that his students had won 18 Academy Awards, 107 Emmy Awards, 19 Writers Guild of America Awards and 16 Directors Guild of America Awards. For my experience with him, it was the toughest seminar I’ve ever sat through – 12 hours each day with rare breaks. read more

In 1988, Jodie Foster won the Academy Award for Best Actress, for the movie The Accused, portraying a young woman of loose morals who was raped by several men she had befriended in a bar. While the story centered on how three bystanders just watched the rape happen, a sub-theme of the story dealt with her culpability in the rape. There she was, immodestly dressed, late at night, in a bar, drunk, flirting with the men who ultimately raped her. The movie posed an interesting question: Did she somehow encourage her rape through her own misbehavior? read more

In 1988, Jodie Foster won the Academy Award for Best Actress, for the movie The Accused, portraying a young woman of loose morals who was raped by several men she had befriended in a bar. While the story centered on how three bystanders just watched the rape happen, a sub-theme of the story dealt with her culpability in the rape. There she was, immodestly dressed, late at night, in a bar, drunk, flirting with the men who ultimately raped her. The movie posed an interesting question: Did she somehow encourage her rape through her own misbehavior? read more

As I’ve reflected on my life and career, like everyone, I have encountered moments that have changed the trajectory of my life. Of course, marrying Sally when I was 18 years old has had the biggest impact on my life. At the time I was a “pot head” working in a warehouse perfectly content in that lifestyle. I changed everything for Sally. If I’ve made anything of myself, she’s the reason.

Wanting to be a better person for her sake led me to religion and, on September 30, 1978, I joined the LDS Church. But you might be surprised to know that the catalyst for my conversion was a political book written by an evangelical Christian. Though politically minded for a 19 year old, my thoughts hadn’t matured. For some reason I picked up a book titled The Anita Bryant Story and had my first significant philosophical epiphany. Anita Bryant was a former Miss America, celebrity and spokesperson for the Florida orange juice industry. She lived in Miami. read more

Lying in politics is no different than lying throughout life – nearly everybody does it at one time or another. We have “white lies” designed to prevent embarrassment or simply to be polite. We have functional lies to get annoying callers off the phone or to create other excuses in circumstances we’d rather not face. For the longest time, I can remember going into ecclesiastical interviews where I was asked if I am “honest in all things” and replying “You know I work for Congress, right?” My interviewer inevitably would smile, laugh uncomfortably and move on to the next question. read more

Hate crimes legislation is at least two decades old. I worked against the first federal bill in 1990. In all these years, nothing has changed about this legislation – it remains unnecessary, unwarranted and undemocratic. Twenty-six years later, Utah is still kicking around the idea. Of course, the Utah Legislature passed a hate crimes law several years ago but what it passed missed the mark for its original supporters.

This year, Senator Steve Urquhart, a Republican from St. George, was the new bill sponsor. And, new or not, the bill died another ignominious death. The LDS Church announced its opposition and Urquhart’s support began to die on the vine. There is a lot to unpackage about hate crimes legislation, so let’s start at the top. read more

I signed the “Never Trump” petition. Despite his entertainment value, Donald Trump is an unprincipled opportunist, in my opinion. He certainly is not qualified for president in any sense of that term. He’s not the kind of person I want my grandchildren to admire or mimic. Trump is simply not a rational candidate if you’re a conservative and, frankly, I don’t know how rational people claim to support him.

For those reasons, and more, I guess I am now a part of the Establishment. I hear how the Establishment doesn’t want Trump to be president because the Establishment would lose its power. In other words, the defense of Trump against the Establishment is that the latter opposes the former not because of any fundamental policy disagreements but because the Establishment seeks to maintain power that grants them access to plunder – and, incredibly, Trump is supposedly the savior who would stop all the plunder. read more

Conservative icon William F. Buckley made popular the obscure expression, “Don’t immanentize the eschaton!” an expression he gleaned from political theorist Eric Voegelin. To immanentize the eschaton means to try to bring to pass some imagined glorious moment on earth right before the world’s end. For Buckley and Voegelin it referred to all utopian ideas they opposed such as socialism or communism.

There actually is some religious history to this expression as well and one that relates to Utah’s Mormon heritage. It’s not surprising during the Second Great Awakening, when Joseph Smith gathered people to Mormonism, that an anti-millennial opposition was formed. The Lutheran Church, for example, spoke out against any talk of building heaven on earth. But the whole goal of the early Mormon Church was to build a new Zion – a formal and functioning community of people living God’s laws preparatory to the end times when heaven would literally come down to earth to meet the new Zion. In this way Joseph Smith believed that we really could immanentize the eschaton. read more

The political success of Donald Trump is not surprising. His formula for success is rather simple: Tell everyone how bad things are and assure everyone he is the answer. Use his celebrity. Use his billions. Use his “you’re fired” tough talk. And Trump has his finger on the pulse of modern America. He’s right that America is fractured, culturally and economically, after two terms of Obama. He’s right that federal debt is nearly insurmountable at this point and America has lost its stature overseas. But those observations are not unique to Mr. Trump. A blind man could see the problems. read more