IRANIAN DEMOCRACY AT WORK

Iranian electoral democracy at work may have much in common with our own here in the United States.

We don’t live there – in Iran. We don’t vote in their elections. We are not privy to what’s going on, in person, as it happens. We have zero firsthand information about the Iranian election. We depend on news reports. Those news reports have shown us the apparent massive support for the anti-Ahmadinejad candidate. Of course, all we know is what we’re told… so, in truth we don’t really “KNOW” anything at all. We’re dependant upon the news reports to be credible. The US media tells us the truth, doesn’t it? They are credible.

Maybe they are. Maybe they’re not. Ask yourself again: What do we know… I mean, what do we “KNOW?”

Look at it from this perspective –

Let’s say Ahmadinejad managed to defeat Mousavi because of the votes he received from a single district. That is where the election turned in his favor. Let’s also say that this district was controlled by Ahmadinejad’s very close friend, a lifelong associate… perhaps even his brother – a blood relative, a tribal intimate. And, let us say that his opponent, Mousavi, hotly contested this local result and blamed the “brother” for fixing the count. Let us say that Mousavi claimed he actually won the district in question just as he was credited with winning the country as a whole.

Let’s say Mousavi demanded a recount in the “brother’s” district.

Now, go to the extreme. Let’s say the Iranian election was finally and conclusively decided by a vote of a special High Court that ruled there could be no independent recount of the district’s ballots and, in effect, declared Ahmadinejad the victor. Add one last element to this by stipulating that some of the members of this High Court had been named by Ahmadinejad’s closest tribal sponsor – by his father!

How do you think the US news media would report that? Would they report that Iran had held a fair and honest election? Would the result be presented to us as a symbol of what democracy is supposed to be all about? Or, maybe, don’t you think, it would be universally seen – by our own media – as the dishonest, corrupt violation of the public will that it surely was – an inside, family-job, a put up deal, FIXED!

Now - take it one final unthinkable step beyond: What if that happened here, right here in the United States of America, God’s gift to the world as its Best Hope for mankind on this planet – the home of the brave and the land of the free?

No need to worry. Such a travesty could never happen here.

By the way, did I tell you how furious I am with the Iranian sham election, their hoax upon democracy? They don’t deserve the time of day from a people as noble and honest and democratic and free as us.

God bless the USA!