CPAC Calls for the Deployment of Michele Bachman’s Flying Monkeys

In a cosmic coincidence of timing, the once-in-a-century historic revolution in Egypt occurred simultaneously with the annual CPAC convention in Washington DC, allowing television viewers to get a side by side comparison of angry citizens in two different nations as they vented their wrath and hatred focused on their respective presidents. Clearly, the CPAC crowd would have been just as thrilled as the Egyptians if Barack Obama had stepped down from power on Friday along with Hosni Mubarak. The fact that Obama was duly elected by a rather substantial majority of voters in a totally democratic process— this didn’t seem to be a reason to cut him any slack within CPAC, and it raises a question. In America, do we love and embrace democracy? Or do we love and embrace the IDEA of democracy? For the past twenty or so years, I’ve seen both political parties in Washington heaping constant and glorious praise on the idea and theoretical concept of democracy, even as they manifest contempt and disgust for the constraints of an actual democracy in operation.

This is something for Egypt to keep in mind as that country now strives to build its own democracy. I’m not sure that, among the democracies of the world, the United States of America is the very best example for the Egyptians to copy.