some of those who helped overthrow the Mubarak dictatorship believe that Iranian elements have tried to muscle in and make the revolution Islamist. Maybe that's true. Gene at Harry's Place posts rather interestingly on the topic. One of those quoted in Egypt is aghast at the notion that any new regime should exclude Egypt's Coptic Christians, who are I think about 10% of the population, which is heartening to read, and which is of course what an Islamist regime would do. And worse, probably. Gene also sees grounds for optimism about the US administration, thinking recent events have shown them to be proactive rather than reactive. I am not so sure. Two or three speeches don't make a change of em;hasis. It's the speeches you don't notice at the time, but which build a new ideology, that make the difference, as we saw with Tony Blair. Though that was another story.
Moral clarity. That is what governments need. If the Obama administration has acquired some very good. If not I hope it will.
Still watching an episode of The West Wing at home every so often, we are working our way through them from start to finish. What strikes me now is actually the lack of moral clarity in the Bartlet administration. They were not bad people and it was not a bad administration, but at times last night I wanted to ask "What are you for?" And yes of course it was fictional, but at this perspective it tells us quite a lot about the politics of the 1990s. When we really had never had it so good.
1 comment:
Bartlett and his party were democrats and therefore liberal. What more did you expect from a wonderful TV series?
I watched most of the episodes as they happened, and then life imitated art, as I wondered what Obama is for - but he may have now found a voice.
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