That Egypt Thing

So the Muslim Brotherhood won the Presidency with 51% of the vote. Good. If they hadn't or if the military had engaged in some electoral shenanigans Egypt would be going tits up right now and fast. Undoubtedly, Glenn Beck and countless other Conservatives are strapping on their black suits of doom and gloom and preparing to take to the airwaves to fulminating about Socialist-Islamist-Communist conspiracies against freedom loving Americans but I disagree. I think this is a fundamentally good thing. And here's why:

A big part of the reason why the Arab Spring went down the way it did was that the old school proto-nationalist regimes had failed to deliver on anything. These were countries that were not economically prosperous, had not driven the Jews into the sea and generally had made a mess of things. People got pissed about it- and in times of dire economic need the glue that held these societies together was Islam. So naturally, the beneficiaries of the electoral ire of these countries are going to be parties with an Islamist bent.

And that's good. Because now, the Islamists have to deliver. I couldn't believe the amount of hair-tearing and chest thumping that took place after Hamas won the Palestinian elections a few years back. Of course they did! Fatah was corrupt as hell and Hamas actually made sure the money got to the people. But now they have to govern. It's easy for all these parties to fulminate and foam about the decadence of the corrupt regimes that have come before. But when the people say 'OK' and hand over the keys to the car, then the job gets tougher. You campaign in poetry, you govern in prose. How long before people are complaining about the lack of progress under the Islamists? How long before people are wishing they had the old regime back in power because at least under the old regime, things were a little better? And then the new Islamist masters of these countries are faced with a choice: respect the democratic process or send out their thugs to bash in some heads. And then they become as discredited as the old regime was.

See, I think if the Islamists don't deliver, it will lead to them becoming as discredited as the nationalist regimes were. If Islamism fundamentally opposed to America (as some would have us believe- ignoring the fact that Turkey's been technically Islamist for years now) then I'd say we're OK. Our interests may suffer in the short term but in the long term, if they can't deliver than Islamism will be discredited across the region as a viable political movement. And if they're serious about economic prosperity, education for all and democracy with a tinge of Islamist green then I can't see how this could be seen as anything but a win-win for America.

It's democracy. It's messy. And it'll be interesting to watch.