A few tentative, uninformed comments re the Tehran electoral crisis:
–Some of the theorizing about a fraudulent election seems as persuasive to me as, say, the theorizing that Syria knocked off former Lebanese P.M. Rafik Hariri in 2005– and occupies the same mental category for me: I want to believe it, but it's still largely theoretical.
–Bush/Gore in 2000, another disputed election, reflected a vast cultural schism in the American polity. Red states/blue states. Something of the same opposition is obviously occurring in Iran between a more traditional society (red state) and a wealthier, more highly educated society (blue state).
–Just because I'm on the blue states' side doesn't mean they won. Isn't this a conceptual trap for anyone considering the Other in international politics, and America too? As Mohammad of Vancouver, an artist who is not religious himself, pointed out here the other day, Iranians are religious by and large. So, goddamn it, are Americans. Lately Obama changed America by mentioning "non-believers" in his Inaugural, and I applaud him.
Are we wishing our own reform/progressive movement on other countries? Yes; because we are elitists at heart. But that is a dangerous game.
–The object of a democracy is to resolve revolutionary forces in the political process. Reagan. Obama. If we are for democracy in Iran, don't we hope that it will become more transparent and now give a voice to the tremendous forces in the street–and not hope that there is a violent revolution?
–Ali Gharib talks about conspiracy theories in Iran, and says they have some legitimate basis in reality. Yes and what about actual conspiracies in American politics? Good for her, Anne Flaherty of AP describes the hand of the Israel lobby in today's House resolution which condemns the Iranian crackdown:
Democrats, who typically are quick to voice their support for Israel anytime the Jewish state is seen as under siege, easily agreed to push through the resolution.
I'm also against the Iranian crackdown; but I am wary of the portrait of Iran that is offered in the U.S. by pro-Israel forces.
–Just to get back on my hobbyhorse, all these folks who are so concerned about regularity in Iranian elections, you would advance your case if you called for the application of international law to the slaughter in Gaza 6 months ago.
