As we celebrate our freedom and liberty today on the 237th anniversary of our Declaration of Independence, we are thankful for the fact that we have always had a constitutional government, based on the rule of law, and that we have never had the military intervene in our government, never had them interfere with our democratic system of government!
So therefore, anyone who believes in our system of government must be greatly alarmed at events in Egypt!
The overthrow of Mohammed Morsi by the Egyptian military is disturbing, and it should not matter over the fact that Morsi was the leader of the Muslim Brotherhood, as we are not going to be able to dictate to any sovereign nation that their leader cannot be a Muslim, even of an extremist element, as it is none of our business who they elect!
The important point here is that Morsi was elected in a free and fair election by the people of Egypt, and the only way to remove him is in a constitutional manner, not by the use of force by the military, which historically all over the world is anti democratic by nature!
Morsi was not imposed on the country, but rather ELECTED, and to remove him summarily is not acceptable, and Barack Obama, while realizing that nothing can be done by us regarding what has already happened, has rightfully called for a quick return of the rule of law and a new government elected by the people and totally transparent in the process of the election, which means the Muslim Brotherhood has to be allowed to compete, and if the people vote them in, so be it!
Seeing what has happened makes one concerned that just because there is discontent does not mean illegal means can be used to overthrow governments. One can be sure that there are right wing Tea Party elements who would love to overthrow our President, and figure if they were to demonstrate in the millions as in Egypt, that it might lead our military to break our Constitution and stage a coup against our legally elected leadership.
Thank goodness on this Fourth of July that we have always, through thick and thin, tolerated our leadership of government, and never resorted to attempts to overthrow our form of government, although there was a small scale such attempt, which fortunately went nowhere, against Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1934. But our military has always understood that they are subservient to civilian government, and obey the President of the United States, no matter his party or views!
We have a record of 237 years to uphold, and we should always take the same stand of support for other nations, even if we do not like their leadership, as to do otherwise would be total hypocrisy!
Hello Professor,
As all my well know, I am no fan of any religious conservative faction being in charge of governments. History has shown us over and over again that it is the intollarance of the religion that quickly becomes the problem. The Ottoman Turks and what was done to the Armenians during WWl is a perfect example.
With this being said, you are correct with the fact that the Musulem Brotherhood was democraticly elected. The proper change is to confront their policies, work to make sure they are not enacted into law, and gain enough votes that in the next scheduled election, they are voted out. You can only help and wish that the extremely religious aspects do not do too much damage in the mean time.
The military over throwing the democraticly elected government, even with a popular movement behind them for support, is not the way to change the direction of governing any nation.
Some, if not the majority, of modern liberals naively believe that once an Islamist State is established by force (persecution of religious minorities and opposition) and deceit (saying one thing and doing another) the people will be able to solve the situation by voting. Just because they voted in the extremist in the first place does never mean they can vote them out. Believing that is nonsense. That has never happened wherever an Islamist state has been imposed. See for example Iran, or the Gaza strip where the people voted only once. With the Muslim Brotherhood in power , the rule of law and the alternation of those in power is impossible. It’s like when Communist are in power. There are always elections in Communist countries, yet only one party is allowed to present itself, the rest are eliminated. The only way out of the communist grip was by force, same with the extremist Islamist states.
Even every so called “right wing military dictatorships” has been temporary when compared to the communist dictatorships. Just compare the military governments that plagued South America in the 70’s to Cuba, North Korea or the Ex-Soviet Union and its block!
Under the circumstances the Egyptian military had no alternative and did the correct thing. They intervened before it was too late. So it is easy to criticize Egypt while you are comfortably living in the US, while you are not a Coptic Christian being persecuted, having your church and home burned downed or being killed by the extremist Muslims. It is easy to criticize while you are not a moderate or even secular Egyptian who is being forced into submission to comply with Islamist law. It’s easy to complain while you are not a woman in Egypt that is being subjugated under Islamic law.
But even lets say hypothetically that the majority of Egyptians want the establishment of a extreme terrorizing Islamist State and they vote for it. That does not make them right or even put them in a position of moral/ethic superiority. Quite the contrary. There is a difference between right and wrong.The majority anywhere can be wrong and is known to abuse it’s power. That’s why we in America put limits on power and divide power. That does not exist in Egypt. So under those circumstances where mob rules, and where there is no limit to those in power, there exist the “right to resist oppression”. See Thomas de Aquinas. Which is a basic human right and has driven mankind forward in its path and struggle for freedom.
As always, the modern liberal’s indiscriminateness leads them to invariably side with evil over good and wrong over right.
I could be mistaken but yesterday there was a young man in the crowd who explained to the reporter that Egypt’s constitution does not allow for impeachment of their president like ours. He stated part of the problem was Morsi had something to do with that. He further stated that the people feel Morsi did a 180 in his promises and was stacking the government with the Muslim brotherhood and their ideology….. exactly what he promised not to do. They don’t mind if the Brotherhood has a place at the table but the people do not want them running the government. Morsi was more focused on usurping total control rather than working on Egypt’s economic issues. I believe the citizens of Egypt are determined to have a democratic government and are will to take the issue to the streets if a president elected in a democratic election proves be heading toward another dictatorship.
According to whatI have read the US has worked with the Egyptian military and has felt they are stable. hopefully they will hold to their promise to return the government to a Democratically elected and run in that matter.
Hello Maggie,
Remember my mentioning how the current aspects of my Party has attracted the socially inept?
Maggie, the military in Egypt are not to be trusted, and under the same logic, if enough Tea Party activists and other right wing activists organize and take their issues to the streets and claim our President is leading us to dictatorship which many have said already, then should our military break our tradition and throw him out?
When are we going to understand that we cannot dictate to other nations what their governments should be like, and instead focus on making certain that basic human rights are not denied in our own country, as is happening right now with women and African Americans and Latinos, thanks to the Supreme Court and Republican state legislatures as we speak?
This nation has backed enough military dictatorships in the past, particularly in Latin America, in the name of American interests, and no wonder that we are so mistrusted in the hemisphere, and have been able to become the whipping boy of extremist governments of Cuba, Venezuela and Bolivia!
As much as I deplore Islamic governments, we are not going to win points backing military seizure of power, and we are not going to make them Christian nations, which a lot of extremist religious influences in America would love to occur, but is delusional!
Well that is more the norm than the exception when you are dealing with Religious Reactionaries. Does not matter what religion. There is a good painting called, “The Death Of Socrates” and I recommend you Google it. It was their version of their “Fundamentalist” who were in control of government in Athens. History does repeat itself….and often.
Speech on the Occasion of the 150th Anniversary of the Declaration of Independence
Calvin Coolidge
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
July 5, 1926
“When we take all these circumstances into consideration, it is but natural that the first paragraph of the Declaration of Independence should open with a reference to Nature’s God and should close in the final paragraphs with an appeal to the Supreme Judge of the world and an assertion of a firm reliance on Divine Providence. Coming from these sources, having as it did this background, it is no wonder that Samuel Adams could say “The people seem to recognize this resolution as though it were a decree promulgated from heaven.â€
“But when we come to a contemplation of the immediate conception of the principles of human relationship which went into the Declaration of Independence we are not required to extend our search beyond our own shores. They are found in the texts, the sermons, and the writings of the early colonial clergy who were earnestly undertaking to instruct their congregations in the great mystery of how to live. They preached equality because they believed in the fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man. They justified freedom by the text that we are all created in the divine image, all partakers of the divine spirit”
“In order that they might have freedom to express these thoughts and opportunity to put them into action, whole congregations with their pastors had migrated to the Colonies. These great truths were in the air that our people breathed. Whatever else we may say of it, the Declaration of Independence was profoundly American.”
“In its main features the Declaration of Independence is a great spiritual document. It is a declaration not of material but of spiritual conceptions. Equality, liberty, popular sovereignty, the rights of man these are not elements which we can see and touch. They are ideals. They have their source and their roots in the religious convictions. They belong to the unseen world. Unless the faith of the American people in these religious convictions is to endure, the principles of our Declaration will perish. We can not continue to enjoy the result if we neglect and abandon the cause.”
“No other theory is adequate to explain or comprehend the Declaration of Independence. It is the product of the spiritual insight of the people. We live in an age of science and of abounding accumulation of material things. These did not create our Declaration. Our Declaration created them. The things of the spirit come first. Unless we cling to that, all our material prosperity, overwhelming though it may appear, will turn to a barren sceptre in our grasp. If we are to maintain the great heritage which has been bequeathed to us, we must be like-minded as the fathers who created it. We must not sink into a pagan materialism. We must cultivate the reverence which they had for the things that are holy. We must follow the spiritual and moral leadership which they showed. We must keep replenished, that they may glow with a more compelling flame, the altar fires before which they worshiped.”
http://teachingamericanhistory.org/library/document/speech-on-the-occasion-of-the-one-hundred-and-fiftieth-anniversary-of-the-declaration-of-independence/
The Presidents stimulus speech. Very revealing.