Results of next week's presidential election are important to US-Iran relations and determining what Washington's next moves will be in that part of the world. Although Iran's form of government is not what Americans understand as a model representative democracy, it is not nearly as autocratic as most of us imagine. The pronouncements of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, inflammatory as they are, do not represent the best qualities of that country's electorate and although the clerical authorities have the power to countermand anything he says, at some level they, too, have their fingers on a popular pulse that may not always reflect the brightest and best that Iran offers. (No American should have to be reminded that convoluted politics, demagoguery, conflicts of interest and old-fashioned blind negligence is endemic to all political systems. Other systems may be corrupt but our own is far from perfect.)
via Hootsbuddy’s Place: Iran’s Presidential Election is Next Week.
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