Egypt and Arizona, so to speak. . . .

"Should the West fear democracy in the Mideast?"


That is about Egypt, of course.  It is a magazine headline.

Democracy:  governance chosen by the people,
whoever the people are,
rather than a form imposed on them.

Of course what is going on in Egypt is worrisome,
and it does concern us, not because we should try
to impose something on them, but because
whatever they chose will affect us, too.

To tell the truth, I worry about democracy in Arizona, too.
After all, the people of Arizona chose Jan Brewer,
and John Kyl, and John McCain, too, who chose Sarah Palin.
If it becomes legal for students to carry concealed firearms
in Arizona, it will be as a result of a democratic process.

To speak entirely non-partisanly, every time someone
in Congress says something genuinely stupid, or racist,
or homophobic, or sexist, I try to remind myself that
those people were elected to office, democratically.

So if the people of Egypt actually do get a chance
to shape their own governance, and they end up with
another "strong man", I will understand, however lamentably.
People do choose autocrats to govern them, because
an autocracy does, indeed, provide the kind of leadership
some people want.  Maybe they will choose an interim
military government.  Maybe, although, not likely,
they will choose to be governed by Muslim clerics.

Oh, my!  Let us hope not.  The Pope would make a terrible
hospital administrator, and fundamentalist religious leaders
make for terrible leaders of state, unless you want a
fundamentalist state and school system, as in Texas, for instance.

I wonder is Texas has a big public square where we could
all go and demonstrate.  Not the Alamo!  Things did not
go well, there.

There is a good reason why no country, not even us,
has a true democracy.  Every once in a while, people
want to do the damnedest things.  In California, for instance,
the people petitioning the government--actually, requiring 
the government to do crazy things--is a big problem.

For that reason, we actually have a representative form
of government, precisely to create a buffer between the direct
and immediate whims of the public, and considered action.

One could argue that putting everything to a direct vote
of the people--a pure democracy--is at least as dangerous
as a benign autocracy.  It is a good thing to elect some
Tea Party people to Congress, but it is even better
to surround them with layers and layers of common sense.

So we should hope that Egyptians get a strong voice
in shaping their own future, and that they will have time
to think about it, coolly, rationally, representatively.