Lessons of Egypt

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Slate has an article by an Egyptian activist pondering where the revolution went wrong.

The main enemy of the people has always been the security state—the police and the military. We will never get anywhere until they are dismantled entirely. There was a moment when that could have been achieved, when a civilian state could have been built. But Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood would have had to choose the challenge of working with the disparate and bickering forces of the left and the liberals over dealing with the organized certainty of the military.

So, basically, uncompromising extremists could not deal with the ambiguities and give-and-take of the liberal, democratic process. And they had control of the police and the military.

Does anyone doubt what will happen to most of us if the baggers ever got control of the police and the military? In a rational world I don’t see how they would do that, but in a rational world Ted Cruz would be running a dry cleaning store in Sugarland.

See also Aaron David Miller, “Obama’s Egypt Policy Makes Perfect Sense” (Foreign Policy) and Ed Kilgore, “Obama on Egypt Explained.”

10 thoughts on “Lessons of Egypt”

  1. Not only top down, but what happens if/when there is a revolution, as the wingers keep hoping. They just never think of the likely consequences (and not just about that).

  2. We already know what would happen if so called progressives ever actually got into power–Stalin’s purges, Hitler’s gas chambers, Mao’s starving millions, Pol Pot’s killing fields, The examples go on and on.

    You need to face yourself, with your anger and your fear. You are projecting on to others what you yourself desire.

    • We already know what would happen if so called progressives ever actually got into power

      Yeah, just look back at Theodore Roosevelt, one of the fathers of American progressivism. Oh, wait …

  3. Speaking of wingers, how did you guys like Ted Cruz’s birth certificate showing Canadian dual citizenship? Oh, the irony! A dread Canadian! You know how “those people” are! Next thing we know he’ll let the rest in and they’ll want free doctorin’! And free Band-Aids! And that sounds like AIDS! And we’ll be bankrupted because Obamacare! Freedumb! Freedumb! U Ass A! U Ass A!

  4. The scariest thing I’ve heard in a while is all the ‘man/woman on the street’ interviews from Egypt that feature regular citizens talking about how things will be OK once they’ve dealt with all the “terrorists”. Apparently quite a few Egyptians are buying into the propaganda that one of the main political parties in the country, which just a short time ago was competing in the nation’s first democratic election, is a bunch of “terrorists” who need to be arrested or worse, wiped out.

    As someone who remembers the names thrown at any of us who dared suggest that invading Iraq was maybe not a good idea, I know that the distance between me and getting branded a terrorist is pretty damn small. Comments like that stupid one above linking progressives to Stalin purges and Pol Pot killing fields just reinforces my concern. They are way too comfortable with distorting reality and accusing liberals of heinous acts, already.

    They’ve already demonstrated that they don’t give a damn about objective truth. God save us if they get more power.

  5. Alek,
    Sounds like your local Teabagging chapter gave you a gold star for reading Jonah’s, “Liberal Fascism.”
    Congratulations.

  6. Conservatives no longer try to polish the turd they’re trying to sell.

    They sold Reagan on his “sunny optimism.”
    Bush I, was a continuation of Reagan’s legacy.
    They sold W as a “Compassionate Conservative.”

    Now, they’re not even trying to put a patina of compassion or empathy.
    Today’s Conservatives, are rage junkies.
    And in their echo-chambers, so is everyone else.
    I don’t think it will sell with the general public.
    But, as I’ve said before, we’re one horrific 9/11-like domestic terrorist attack, or another major rece/depre-ssion, away from President Ted Cruz-ader – or Paul, or Walker, or…

  7. “Speaking of wingers, how did you guys like Ted Cruz’s birth certificate showing Canadian dual citizenship”. He just renounced his canadian citizenship, a move he may regret if WE ever have a revolution. The GOP chickenhawks would be running for Cheney’s secret location, Rush’s oxycontin stash, or nearby white, English-friendly countries like Canada.

  8. Alek Hidell sounds like one of those lunatics who try to argue that Hitler was a socialist. Also his reading comprehension skills register zero. Sad.

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