THE RIGHT-WING LOVES DEMOCRACY - IN IRAN!

The right-wing in America, led loudly and proudly by the Republican Party, has fallen head over heels in love with democracy – in of all places- Iran! The GOP’s last candidate for President, the loser John McCain, himself a lifelong warhawk, a supporter of every dictatorship ever created or propped up by the US military-industrial complex - the man who gleefully sang “Bomb Iran” to the Beach Boy’s tune, “Barbara Ann” – McCain's the one calling out President Obama demanding he lend aid and comfort to the Iranians protesting a “fixed election.”

The right-wing is outraged at a “fixed election!” Reminiscent of the radical 60's SDS, Senator McCain is manning the barricades for Democracy Now! Where was Senator McCain in Florida in 2000? Where were the Republican Party and the foam-at-the-mouth rabid right-wing radio talk hosts in 2004 when the “official vote count” in Ohio said that only 7% of Cleveland’s black voters bothered to turn out and vote in that election? In their love of democracy did they scream for a recount in Ohio? How come these guys never fall in love with democracy over here?

Does nobody remember? The last time the United States involved itself in Iranian electoral politics it was 1953. Working hand in glove with our British allies, in lockstep support of BP Oil and later Mobil, Exxon, Texaco and the rest, we stepped in and overthrew the elected Iranian government – the guys who wanted to actually nationalize their own oil resources - and installed, in their place, the vicious, violent rule of the Shah of Iran. Remember him? He was our point man for democracy in Iran when the great democrat (small “d”) Dwight David Eisenhower was President of the United States. Ike saved democracy in Europe – why not Iran too?

Back then, in 1953, under the direction of General Norman Schwarzkopf (whose son, Norm Jr. would one day lead a US invasion of another Muslim nation in the Middle East), we did exactly what today’s right-wing wants us to do again in Iran – decide which side we like and impose it upon the Iranian people.

We have collectively, conveniently forgotten 1953. Despite President Obama’s admission of the facts, some still insist upon denial. The Iranians have never forgotten. There must be something wrong with them, right?

Imagine – if you can – if some foreign nation had come into the United States in November or December of 2000 and, by force of arms, imposed Al Gore as the new President. Would you have forgotten? Would we ever forget?

And now, in 2009, Iran has held another election and they seem to have fucked it up royally –beyond anyone's wildest dreams. The votes were apparently counted and the results announced even before the voters had cast all their ballots. The greatest fixer of them all, Mayor Richard Daley – the man who man who robbed Nixon and made JFK President - was never able to do that in Chicago.

The Iranian election was a joke. But it was an Iranian election. It's their joke and the mess belongs to them. We are neither the world's policeman nor are we the maid.

They are not children. The Persian culture is thousands of years old. They are not without their own capable leaders. As we pleaded for Poland once – now we should all let Iran be Iran. Let the Iranian people work this out for themselves. For once, let’s us stay out of someone else’s business.