By the time this is read the election of the President of Iran and the subsequent difficulties and demonstrations that followed may be a thing of the past. By the time that this article is read demonstrations due to the alleged fraud in the election of the President of Iran may have caused there to be a new Iran, one that is quite different that the one at the time of the writing of this article. Regardless, the Iranian Citizen’s have exercised their rights to express themselves and to speak against their government something that many of us could not fathom even a short month and half ago.
As interesting as the groundswell of disapproval against alleged fraud in the election of the President of Iran by the Iranian people, is the Republican take on what President Obama and this administration should be doing. The Republican right after the perceived fraudulent election in Iran is calling for President Obama to speak out against the fraud. They were calling for justice to be done in Iran, that it was tolerable that every Iranian vote did not count, that the Government of Iran perpetrated a fraud. They found it repugnant that a government would thwart the will of the people.
Yet, these are some of the same people who eight years ago used every legal maneuver and tactic to make sure that all the votes in the State of Florida were not counted so that George W. Bush could be elected President. These are the same people who called upon the Supreme Court of the United States to stop the counting of all votes in Florida as if a fraud perpetrated upon the American people is trivial in the name of politics. Yet, a fraud perpetrated upon the Iranian people according to the same people is intolerable.
These same people, chastised President Obama for not reaching out to Iranian protestors, forgetting that they called protesters against the election of George W. Bush sore losers. The same people found it repugnant that a Supreme Leader or The Guardian counsel in Iran had the ultimate power to decide who is the victor in the Iranian election but see no irony in the fact a supreme council also known as the Supreme Court did very much the same by anointing George W. Bush as our leader.
We as Americans should step down from our ivory castle. Fraud and injustice in our elections are considered politics as usual, maybe even dirty politics, but none the less politics. Fraud in other countries elections are considered crimes against the human spirit dignity; crimes against people who are calling out to have their voices heard. Our Supreme Court stopping the counting of ballots, is the system working in its framework. The Supreme Leader of Iran who proclaims a winner is the tyrant speaking.
No one is saying that the United States is Iran and Iran is the United States. Yet, the vote in Broward County is equally as important as the vote in Iran. No one is saying the parallels are identical. George W. Bush was anointed our leader by the Supreme Court that was stacked with appointees his father and his father’s running mate Ronald Reagan put on the bench. Akmed Ahmedinujab is the handpicked President of the Ayabollah and the Guardian Counsel. The parallels may not be identical but there are parallels.
So to those Republican pundits who have chastised or who did chastise Barrack Obama for his silence and his lack of involvement in the Iranian Election, “where were you when my vote was not being counted in Broward County Florida”? “Where were you when the Supreme Court called an end to the voting count in the 2000 election”? “And why do you care about the Iranian’s right to voice their opinions in the political process more than you cared about mine in the United States process”?
The answer is simple. You did not care about my ballot being counted because it went against your political agenda. You care about the Iranian votes being counted because it furthers your political agenda by accusing Barrack Obama of not doing enough to help the Iranian protesters. Is this hypocrisy, I say yes.