I’ve been at bit stunned by the media attempts to compare what’s going on in the capital of Wisconsin with the protests in Egypt. It’s light years apart. But that won’t stop the press from trying to make some sort of warped comparison. So let’s take a look at the situation and see what similarities there may be.
The right to freely assemble is a long-held right in America. In Egypt, not so much. In fact when the protests began in Cairo the police took a very hard stance against the protestors. For a nano-second, do you think the Governor of Wisconsin, or the Chief of Police of Madison, gave a moment’s thought of dispersing the crowd in the capital building through force? Not much of a comparison there.
Freedom of speech. A very American concept. It goes side-by-side with freedom of the press. Do you think the concept of vigorous speech against the government in Egypt existed prior to the protests? We take it for granted in the U.S. but there’s certainly no one in Wisconsin that’s going to jail for speaking their peace. The jails in Egypt were replete with adversaries of the government that were locked away for speaking out against the government. Egypt = Wisconsin? Don’t see it here.
Egypt was an autocracy, and power was passed to Mubarak after the assassination of Anwar Sadat in 1981. He was never elected to office by a majority of the Egyptian public. Governor Scott Walker of Wisconsin was legally elected by a majority of the citizens of Wisconsin. Comparable? Not by any standard I’m aware of.
The people in Cairo were demanding the resignation of Hosni Mubarak. The teachers protesting in Madison are demanding the resignation of Governor Walker. Mubarak held power in spite of the will of the people. Governor Walker holds power because of the will of the people. Mubarak was forced to resign because he failed to implement reforms that the Egyptian people had been demanding. Governor Walker is being asked to resign because he’s doing exactly what he promised he’d do during the election campaign and the people of Wisconsin elected him to do. The two are about as dissimilar as possible.
Every protest isn’t Egypt. Protests are common in America. It’s a right we hold dear. To compare every protest in American to the Egyptian people taking back control of their country is absurd. A much fairer comparison would be to the Tea Party protests of last summer. At least then we saw a groundswell of public disgust in the operation of the government. Though the objective of the Tea Party protests wasn’t to demand the resignation of Obama, it was an expression of the public’s distrust with the direction of the country. But let’s be honest; in America we like to express our displeasure with our elected officials. We don’t look to overthrow our government. We have elections to do that, and we did so in November. So please, I know it makes your left-wing liberal hearts sing with delight, but Madison isn’t Cairo, so get a life!
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