Of tea, democracy and litmus tests

Dear Tea Party,

Over the course of the last month people all over the world have come out to protest the economic injustice that is our current reality. It reminds me of another group of people who felt disenfranchised and disappointed with the way our government operates and they did similar things.

So, I have to ask – why all the hate? Look, I will admit that I am very much in favor of the #occupyny protests and it is inspiring that these have spouted up in cities across the globe. It truly warms my heart and I will go to at least one protest (Something I rarely do. The last real protest I attended was in front of the Supreme Court in 2000). I also admit that I do not support The Tea Party. I think refusing to compromise and work with colleagues on the other side of the aisle is one of the biggest problems our Congress faces. We simply cannot threaten to shut th government down every few months. (It also costs a lot more because agencies cannot truly function well when they get funded this way.)

Having admitting all of that, your protests warmed my heart as much as these do. I love to see people get involved and make their voice heard by their government. The First Amendment is one of my favorite parts of the Constitution. It doesn’t only apply to people who agree with me. I may not like what you are saying but you have every right to.

The idea that we all have litmus tests for who we think has a right to protest and who does not is really troubling to me. When you start down the road that someone can arbitrarily decide who gets to speak and who cannot, well, that’s the day we lose one of the things that makes this such a great country.

You say you want a revolution

Iranlandslide

Allegedly, reports from Iran indicate the situation today is similar to what happened just before the 1979 revolution.  I say allegedly because all foreign journalists have been kicked out and the government has been cracking down on its citizens’ access to the internet.  Who’d have thought Twitter could be such a political force?

 

So the election was held last Friday.  The government announced the results about an hour after the polls closed and declared current President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad the winner.  One of the funny things about this was before the government released that, Reuters and other news organizations published reports that challenger, Mir Hossein Mousavi , had won.  I even Tweeted about it Friday night.  So much for trusting Reuters.  To make things stranger, it appeared Mousavi lost his home province and town.  That’s gotta hurt.

 

 Ahmadinejad left for Russia the next day and that’s good for him.  Monday saw the real protests begin and his government killed eight people and wounded many others.  I have been really impressed by how the Iranians have responded.  I applaud them for working so hard to keep getting images and stories out to the world.  They have a very young and engaged population, which is good seeing as all foreign media has been kicked out and has to rely on Tweets.  It’s also good that we have this technology.  The more the government tries to crack down the more the people seem determined to defy them.  Good for them.

 

How does all this compare to 1979?  The leader then was the Shah.  His secret police did a lot of things the Ahmadinejad government is doing now, though the economy is tanking now and it wasn’t then.  It seems to me that a bad economy + a young populace + political unrest = bad news for the current administration.  I don’t know if there will be a revolution or coup but the real power in Iran, the supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei ‘s Guardian Council is reviewing the election while Mousavi has called for the peaceful protests to continue.

 

The problem for President Obama is complicated.  US-Iranian relations have been non-existent since the 1980 hostage crisis but the problems don’t end there.  The Ahmadinejad government has already taken to blaming western governments and Israel for civil unrest.  Given the US history of working its will in Iranian politics, we did support the Shah, any statements made against Ahmadinejad may just give credence to their paranoia and make matters worse.  Moreover, if they keep Ahmadinejad in power, it’s going to be hard to deal with his government after condemning him.   Plus there is the fact that the US cannot condone it when another country kills its own citizens for political reasons.

 

This situation doesn’t do the supreme leader any favors either.  As the spiritual leader, he is supposed to be ‘all knowing’ so if he should have known on Friday if there were problems with the election.  His options were go with the will of the people and risk looking like he isn’t as perfect or anger them by insisting he is.  The path he took, to have the council review contested ballots was as close to a balancing act and I guess we’ll see how well it plays out.

 

Then there is the will of the people and their rights, which have been trampled upon.  They have showed a spectacular amount of determination and resilience.  My fingers are crossed and all we can do here is sit, wait and try to watch.

 

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