If Iran the Election
By Wink
What do ruthless dictators and theocrats fear the most? Guns?
Nope. They fear an educated citizenry, and they fear the ballot box.
A few decades back Iran was overthrown by religious zealots, and they still run it today. They are not good at paperwork, or dealing with foreign dignitaries, so they installed a puppet ‘leader,’ Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who they bother to call ‘president.’
As a figurehead, Ahmadinejad often needs something to do, so sometimes he will make a speech that is anti-American and/or anti-Semitic, and deny the holocaust ever took place. Hey, it keeps the mullahs happy.
Occasionally a theocracy or dictatorship will go thru the motions and hold ‘elections.’ Naturally the outcome is always predetermined, but every once in a while a legitimate, and very brave, candidate decides to run against those who have already ceased power. ‘Brave’ may be a bit of an understatement because opposition leaders know they will probably be assassinated by the ruling party.
Heroically, they sometimes run anyway.
This just happened in Iran, where Mir Hossein Mossavi decided to run against puppet President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Mossavi is well known, and popular enough that, in a legitimate election, he may well have won, or at least seriously challenged Ahmadinejad.
Only minutes after the polls closed, and in spite of the fact that votes are not cast (or counted) electronically, the government of Iran announced that Ahmadinejad won by a wide margin.
They are so new at running rigged elections that they don’t know how to make it look good.
Protesters took to the streets fairly quickly. The government response was a ruthless and violent crackdown.
C’mon whichever-Ayatollah-is-running-Iran right now, get some good advisors. When all votes must be hand-counted, wait at least a day or two to give the phony results.
People will still protest, but probably in smaller numbers because it will at least look a little like you really counted the votes.
The bad news for fundamentalist Iranian rulers: One thing going against you is that the educated voters in Iran are pro-west. They are not religious zealots. They want to cooperate with the U.S. and with Europe. They want cars and cell phones and the freedom to go wherever, and say whatever, they want.
The good news: There are still millions of under-educated and uneducated in Iran who will believe whatever you tell them. They will accept that all non-believers are infidels, and the lack of personal freedom is just to ‘protect’ people from those evil infidels…
(4 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5)
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