"WHEN FASCISM COMES TO AMERICA IT WILL BE WRAPPED IN THE FLAG
AND CARRYING A CROSS." -SINCLAIR LEWIS

Sunday, June 14, 2009

Something Someone Else Drew

A political cartoon by Nikahang Kosar, a leading cartoonist and blogger, portraying the apparent over sized stolen victory in the recent Iranian presidential election by incumbent Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

(via)

I'm obviously far from being an expert on Iranian politics but everything I read and hear tells me that this election was fixed for Ahmadinejad in the worst and most obvious ways. But perhaps this is encouraging in the long run. It seems to me that the only reason the current theocracy in Iran would fake results this blatantly is because they are that scared of a result from the populous that they could not control. Know hope.

[Update: Andrew Sullivan asks an obvious question:

Under what circumstances with a turnout of 85 percent do landslides for incumbents happen, as the regime claims in Iran? Are there any precedents for this in electoral history? One way of tackling the question of fraud is simply probability. How many election results in history have never varied from region to region or from the beginning of the count to the end? Does this result have any serious precedents? Or is it as self-evidently rigged as it increasingly seems?
This is not surprising considering the current players but somewhat hopeful when you look at the make up of the Iranian population. Just as in America, the younger generation is more politically engaged and progressive than ever before. I take heart in this new trend in both cultures.]

[Update II: A green shirted Mousavi protester rescues a beleaguered state policeman during a post-election riot following the apparent victory of Mahmoud Ahmadinajedad in Iran:
Humane acts such as this distinguish the true heroes from the theocratic monsters in every society.]

2 comments:

Tim said...

Is it me, of does Iran's election resemble Florida 2000?

Same strong arm tactics, dodgy ballots, intimidation...

This is one event that will be forever etched in the minds of millions of Americans. When you think about it, Bush claimed a legitimate victory when he a) lost the popular vote and b) would stand by the legitimacy of this election to office on what, truly, came down to a miniscule number of ballots.

It was a shameless and shameful act, perpetrated by Republicans and conservatives in their bid for power.

JBW said...

Tim, I agree with you that our 2000 election was indeed dodgy and after reading a lot about it I do believe that Gore was the winner but I think Iran is on a whole other level.

The margin of victory that Ahmadinejad's government is claiming for him is extraordinarily improbable in most parts of the country and the lengths that they're going to to quash opposing voices is totalitarian to say the least.

I may sound a bit callous saying this but I'm finding the whole thing quite fascinating to watch. The extent that communication technologies and networking sites have permeated both of our cultures makes it possible to follow the potential revolution in that country almost minute by minute. We are almost assuradely watching history unfold here and I feel like I have a front row seat.