<p>“Once again the voters will be left to choose between slightly different shades of the status quo.”</p>
<p>I wouldn’t belabor the point, but our system tends to produce Presidential elections that people often criticize in almost the same terms. Certainly lots of people felt that way in 1988, 1992, and 2000.</p>
<p>As mini often points out, the situation in Iran is a lot more complex than we sometimes bother to notice. Notwithstanding the blackballing of a number of reform candidates, in the last election there was a fairly clear choice between relatively liberal and conservative candidates. The electorate chose the conservative, something that most observers seemed not to expect, in large part out of anger at the West for demonizing Iran and invading Iraq. I haven’t seen any suggestion that the election itself wasn’t legitimate (as opposed to the candidate-vetting process that preceded it).</p>
<p>One of the things that is interesting is that today’s students grew up entirely under the current regime, and they still have a taste for protest and academic freedom. They must be getting that from somewhere. To me, Iran is another example of a country where we would win the battle of ideas if we would only stop trying to conduct debate with guns and bombs.</p>