Cognitive Dissonance VIII
American Future
By Marc Schulman on Egypt
Here's the reactions of a couple of left/liberal bloggers to Mubarek's electoral reforms:
daily KOS:
The Bush Administration will feel, and with some justification, a measure of satisfaction. But very big questions are raised by this - Is this going to be a legitimate election? We know that having elections does not guarantee democracy. Who can run? Are all parties eligible? Who can win? This is not a legitimacy question, rather whether democracy will actually bring forth a positive result for U.S. interests. What support can fundamentalist Islamists garner? Can anti-U.S. parties win?
In the end, it seems difficult for me to imagine that the progress likely to be achieved towards democratic reforms in the Middle East can ever justify the Iraq Debacle, but the possibility of good news in Egypt on this front is a good thing.
Kevin Drum:
The devil is in the details, of course, and this might turn out to be mostly window dressing in the end. But as a frequent critic of the administration's sincerity about democracy promotion, let me say that their conduct over the past couple of months has been better than I imagined it would be. Baby steps, to be sure, but hopeful ones. I hope they keep it up.
A noteworthy comment from Kevin Drum's post:
In my view, the recent developments in the Middle East require a careful and public readjustment for the Dems. Since the beginning of the war, Democrats have embraced (and somewhat relished) the role of pointing out all of the pitfalls, from the operation itself, to battling the insurgents, to the elections on Jan. 30th. And even though public opinion polls show that most Americans might be inclined to agree with them right now, if the end result is democracy in Iraq, democracy in Palestine, and spillover effects into the rest of the region, Bush and his policies will (fairly or not) get the credit for these historic changes. And what will be the Democratic position then? Will we be cast as the skeptics who never thought it could happen or were cynical about the motives? I would want to avoid that situation by refining our positions now, so that success in Iraq means success for the Democratic Party too. And its not too late
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