A Hard Line in Iran

Bidisha Banerjee, Slate Magazine:

Bloggers discuss the Iranian elections and wonder whether President Bush will defy the Senate and confirm John Bolton as U.N. ambassador; they also react to a liberal initiative to make young Republicans enlist in the military.

A hard line in Iran: During the first round of Iran's presidential elections last week, ultraconservative candidate Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had an extremely good showing against moderate Hashemi Rafsanjani. A run-off is scheduled for later this week.

Many bloggers urge Iranians to boycott the election altogether, calling them a sham. Regime Change Iran's DoctorZin, a Californian, fulminates: "A vote for any of these candidates is approval of poverty, oppression, prostitution, humiliation, frustration, brain drain." READ MORE

Conservative favorite Ed Morrissey at Captain's Quarters agrees: "[I]n truth the only people running Iran after the election will be the same ones running it now—the unelected and unaccountable Guardian Council. Reformers don't need to give that system any more credibility, and lack of participation costs them nothing in the end. They should walk away."

Others dissect America's role in the elections. Linking to this Washington Post piece, Democracy Arsenal's Michael Signer, a Democratic attorney, notes that President Bush's recent pro-democracy comments about Iran may have been "rewarded with large increases in the turn-out among Iran's conservative base." And WILLism's liberal Will Franklin reports about his visit to an Iranian polling booth in Houston: "In the meantime, I can report firsthand with certainty that Friday's Iranian election in Houston was not free, not transparent, and not truly open to all Iranians who wanted to vote, even just to cast a protest vote. It was a 'private event' paid for by the Iranian regime."

Read more about Iranian elections; read Smart Mobs on the role of text-messaging in the elections. ...

Bidisha Banerjee is a Slate editorial assistant.

We have a new reader, Slate Magazine. Are they considering our supporting a boycott of the phony elections, a hard line? Hmm. I thought military action against Iran was the hard line. Then again, they are probably referring to the new hard line direction that Iran is headed in.