Democracy strikes again – the God ticket wins in Egypt

Uh oh — Democracy strikes again — a conservative Islamist is elected president of Egypt.

He’s Mohammed Morsi — an engineer, educated in America at USC but also… a member of the Muslim Brotherhood. It’s not clear just how much power he will have, but in any case, this is a guy famous for calling Israelis vampires, and his group’s stated goal is to create states ruled by Shariah law. The Brotherhood was also the inspiration for Al Qaeda.

And CBS reports he wants to strengthen ties with Iran.

“There are reservations in Washington about having an Islamist leader in Egypt. That won’t be helped by news this morning that Morsi wants to expand ties with Iran in order to create a strategic balance in the region,” report CBS newsman Charlie D’Agata.

So all this sounds terrible. But a couple of things to keep in mind:

Anytime an ideological group wins an election, it’s pretty much the end. Either they have to stick to their principles and tick off all the normal people, or compromise and tick off the die-hards.

Back in 2006, another Islamist group, Hamas … won the election in Gaza, promising housing stipends, plenty of water, electricity, and jobs. Well, Hamas leaders got the water, but there were no stipends, and the electricity is on for maybe six hours a day.

Today the latest poll in Gaza shows show 70% describe conditions as bad or very bad, and support for the government is around 24%.

So go ahead and run on the God ticket, but unless God can keep the lights on… you won’t be feeling the love for long.