Hi Zonder,
I know very little about the ME and find your views challenging and informative. I went to look up how Hassad (the father) came into power, because it seems to me that what was missing in your description of the consensus building, etc, was an actual mechanism for change. What I found seems to say that Hassad built his political base carefully and then took over in a bloodless coup. However, he then proceeded to imprison his opposition. Saddam built his power base and then in a not so bloodless coup took over, torturing and murdering any dissenters.
Is the coup the way regimes change? And if so, then it seems to me that this is a weakness in the system you describe, and is what we avoid here. There may be suggestions of wrongdoing like misplaced ballots (although the ones in a garage were blanks, if memory serves) and I have no idea what really happened in Florida- don't know if we ever will--, but if it was the equivalent of a coup, then at least the Democrats are still walking around and coming back to fight another day, and no one was shot for protesting the election results. It will be interesting to see how the next elections are run. The hanging chad thing was a riot, but when you think about the size of our country, the huge population, the degree of independence, I think the fact that we manage national elections fairly successfully at all is impressive.
The problem it would seem to me (and I repeat, I am reallllly dumb about the ME, so if I say anything that sounds Ugly American- it is from ignorance and not rudeness) is the danger of not so bloodless coups and the inherent truth of absolute power corrupting in a long-term regime.
I don't think our system is perfect, but I do think the tripartite nature of the government provides a failsafe and while we may be suffering right now, we have the chance to change it in another year. My biggest concern is apathy and a willful ignorance on the part of the people.
Thanks again for the insights. |
