Base10Blog: The Conventional Wisdom

Sunday, January 29, 2006

The Conventional Wisdom
Base10 is watching the shoutfest this morning and is considering what is likely to be the left's talking points on the President's State of the Union speech scheduled for Tuesday. Here's how it goes: the President has pushed democratization in the Middle East but look at the results. All countries that have had elections have shown a tilt to Islamism: Egypt (Muslim Brother hood makes gains), Iraq (Shiite Islamist parties have plurality), Iran (crazy Islamist elected as President), Lebanon (Hezbollah makes inroads in Parliment) and most recently Palestine (Hamas gets majority of legislature). How can we push democracy, they argue, when the results are votes in favor of militant Islam? Bush is misguided. His simplistic view that democracy is good is conflicting with American security interests in the Middle East.

Base10 disagrees. The naysayers are seeing defeat where great gains have been made. Let's take them one by one. The most recent Egyptian election--in spite of being fixed--was the most liberal one they've had in decades. Iraq is in the process of forming a unity govermnet across sectarian lines. Iran's election was a sham that was boycotted by the more secular reformist groups. Lebanon had the first elections more or less free from Syrian influence since the seventies.

Palestine is another question. Hamas victory may not bode well for the peace process but it is too early to tell. One of the results however is the inability going forward of the Palestinian government to deny responsibility for attacks and blame them on fringe groups while simultaneously refusing to do anything about them. They are the state now. Any attack on Israel is an attack by the Palestinian Authority.
- posted by Base10 @ 9:37 AM

Comments:

My dear friend, you are missing the point. Your stance that these election gains are a step in the right direction is a LIBERAL perspective. We on the liberal side, while not thrilled about religious extremist making election gains, do think that signs of true democracy in Egypt, Palestine, Lebanon are significant achievements. It is the right-wingers that are freaking out. What the left's position is that these gains by the Muslim Brotherhood, Hamas, etc. were directly related to the misguided policies of the Bush administration and American support for dictators in the region, i.e., Mubarak and Co. People want democracy, what they don't want is the United States telling them what kind of democracy and who should lead. Again, the conservatives are too ignorant to recognize what is going on here and can't see the forest for the trees.

# posted by

Racer X : 11:35 AM

You, my friend, are misunderstanding my use of the term "liberal." Liberalism--in its classic sense-- means representative government, free markets and an open political system. Think John Locke. We are all liberals in this sense. Americans often confuse liberalism with "Liberalism" a left-leaning American political movement. In Europe "Liberal Parties" have retained the original meaning and Liberals there are often considered conservatives. The successful democratic process, regardless of the outcome is indeed a plus in the conception of classical liberalism. In the long term, George Bush will go down in history as one of the most visionary American Presidents for this sea change in American foreign policy. Some day, years from now, Middle Eastern children will revere the President as the creator of their freedoms.

# posted by

Base10 : 12:14 PM