WaPo's Richard Cohen: Egyptian democracy will be "a nightmare"

[chimpymustgo]

BY ALEX PAREENE

Nothing saddens Richard Cohen more than the sight of hundreds of thousands of Egyptians peacefully protesting. The longtime Washington Post columnist is sad because those childish Arab Muslims might end up with a democracy, but they don't know how democracy works. Here is how democracy works: We like it unless "the people" want something that complicates our current foreign policy objectives.

Cohen is just broken up about this. "Egypt, once stable if tenuously so, has been pitched into chaos." "The dream of a democratic Egypt," he says, "is sure to produce a nightmare." It is sure to. Such a nightmare it will be. Just not anywhere near as pleasant as these last 30 years of "stability" have been, for everyone.

Cohen is totally an expert on Egypt and Muslims, because he is a longtime opinion columnist for the Washington Post, and not at all a blinkered idiot. Egypt "lacks the civic and political institutions that are necessary for democracy," he tells us. And you can't argue with that. I mean, do Egyptian newspapers even run syndicated Richard Cohen opinion columns? Do they have "Dancing With the Stars," to teach them how voting works?

My take on all this is relentlessly gloomy. I care about Israel. I care about Egypt, too, but its survival is hardly at stake. I care about democratic values, but they are worse than useless in societies that have no tradition of tolerance or respect for minority rights. What we want for Egypt is what we have ourselves. This, though, is an identity crisis. We are not them.

No. We are not them, at all. Because they are Muslims. We all know Americans could handle democracy because we were super good at respecting the rights of minority groups. But the Egyptians are sometimes resentful of or even violent against minority groups, so no democracy allowed for them. (While some Coptic Christians worry that a more Islamic Egyptian government would be less friendly to Copts, demonstrators are stressing an inclusive, nationalist message, and there's evidence that Christians are themselves involved in the protests. The right-wing CBN has even filed a report on the growing "bond" between Christians and "their Muslim neighbors" in Egypt.)

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http://www.salon.com/news/washington_post/index.html?story=/politics/war_room/2011/02/01/richard_cohen_democracy

Adding link to Cohen's piece:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/01/31/AR2011013104014.html

[Jack Rabbit]

1. Did Bolten write a column using Cohen's by-line?

It sure sounds that way.

[Odin2005]

2. And here comes the "brown people are not ready for Democracy" bullshit.

[pnwmom]

5. How about some "Egyptian women aren't worried about the

influence of the Muslim brotherhood. Men will always do what's best for women" bullshit.

[Odin2005]

12. The MB is a non-issue right now.

[pnwmom]

13. Keep dreaming. n/t

[MicaelS]

3. Facepalm....

America needs to be on the right side of human rights. But it also needs to be on the right side of history. This time, the two may not be the same.

Holy shit.

[underpants]

11. HEADDESK

I care about Israel.

The Muslim Brotherhood seems to be lying low. Is this a reflection of weakness or canniness?

The Egyptian crisis has produced the usual blather about the role of America.

[Hell Hath No Fury]

4. Democracy -- good for Israel (kind of)

Not good for the other guy. :eyes:

[Raksha]

6. Typical paternalistic condescending bullshit, and he isn't even bothering to hide it.

Good luck with that, Cohen.

[Hardrada]

7. He is part of the Thirty Year Blight too and sould be forcibly retired

to inner Turkey or somewhere equally remote.

[chimpymustgo]

9. "The 30-year Blight". All these jerks need to get on a plane.

[MicaelS]

17. That's a new one for me...

Where does that term come from?

[Hardrada]

18. It's mine. All the states of the union suffered the fate medieval

theologians reserved for the damned following the 1980 election. (To borrow from Winston Churchill). I just needed a shorthand phrase for this.

[monmouth]

8. Cohen and Gergen went drinking together...It must be.....n/t

[killbotfactory]

10. And being ruled by a tyrannical oppressive and corrupt regime is what?

Besides "not a concern" for foreign policy "experts"?

[jwirr]

14. I do not think the religion has anything to do with it. But they are going

to have a harder time of it than we did. They do not have a lot of resources and they have a huge population mostly poor. Those two factors will continue to impact the government. Their economic structure will either be able to handle the needs or it won't and if it cannot the government will be blamed.

[Rex]

15. What the fuck would Richard Cohen know about democracy

he just lives in one! Doesn't mean shit about him knowing the inner-workings of our country. He is just a simp with a pen and an eazy-A-job that requires no thinking skills. Shit, a monkey could write a better article and a group of monkeys could make a better rag then the WP.

Jus sayin...

P.S. What an arrogant fuck to state he knows who is and who is not ready for a democratically elected nation! EVERYONE IS READY! They just need the shackles of their oppressors cast down first.

[Hardrada]

19. Now I wonder what Tom Friedman is going to chime in with.

Another of the dark siders.

[somone]

16. Only Iraqis and Afghans are equipped to handle 'democracy'?