Faster Election Watch

David Brooks joins the chorus calling for elections in Iraq this fall.

Comments

[Brad DeLong]

Yes! Good idea! But... why not last fall, or last summer? I mean, there are two sources of legitimacy: the ability to say "A hell of a lot of people voted for me" and the ability to say "I can put a bunch of people with kalishnikovs behind windows and under cover along your convoys routes of march."

I'm going to go bang my head against the wall some more...

[Pouncer]

Why not NATIONAL elections? Well, here's an opinion from a UN-ophile Brit, Sir Jeremy Greenstock

http://www.economist.com/opinion/displayStory.cfm?story_id=2647347

"The answer is that a classic chicken-and-egg problem arose in the second half of 2003. Mr Bremer quite rightly wanted national elections to be held only after the principles of the new state had been prescribed in a new constitution. The political tussle would otherwise have become a crude battle between political operators and their militias for power inadequately defined, and with individuals and minorities inadequately protected. Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani, however—whose voice was filling the vacuum of independent political expression despite his refusal to hold a political post—declared it unacceptable to have a constitution prepared by unelected actors. The chronological order turned into a stalemate. Mr Bremer's Seven Steps, the political outline designed in the summer of 2003, fell apart."

So social democrat Professor DeLong and theocratic Ayatollah Sistani are on the same page: Elections First! Constitutional safeguards of civil rights, women's rights, property rights, all that stuff ... can wait.

Meanwhile, LOCAL elections have been proceeding.
Sometimes successfully. Sometimes not.
http://abcnews.go.com/sections/wnt/GoodMorningAmerica/Iraq_localgovt_031102.html

"Five teams of ABCNEWS and Time reporters found it was difficult assessing the successes or failures of local government both in pre- and postwar Iraq since Iraqis have widely different opinions ...

200 neighborhood and tribal councils have been set up throughout the country, representing 85 percent of the Iraqi population."

Let's see now ... in 1789 the US constitution provided for representation of ... hmmm. With women and blacks (as Condi Rice puts it, "not me") excluded -- well 50% of the genders minus 3/5th of the blacks and 5/5th of the Indians and any whites immigrants still indentured ... I dunno the exact percentage, actually. Less than 85%, I bet.

I suppose we could have muddled along with no constitution or Bill of Rights at all until those issues were all worked out ...

[Pouncer]

"Iraqis have widely different opinions ..."

Red states and blue states, after all.

And in Iraq: ochre, mauve, khaki, fuschia and teal, along with all the primary and secondary, and among others.

Confusing ABC reporters is, I think, a good thing.