Rejoicing in the streets of Egypt

At this point, Egyptian President Morsi has been ousted by the military, the constitution has been suspended temporarily, and the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court has been temporarily installed as acting president until new elections can be held.

Millions of people rejoiced, hoping that mistakes in their fledgling democracy can be corrected with a better constitution and new leadership.  At first Morsi seemed like a good guy who was not going to govern as a representative of the Muslim Brotherhood.   But as time went on, he became more and more authoritarian;   problems weren't being solved;   the economy was sinking.    The new democratic government was a failure, leading to massive protests in the streets.

I'm cautiously optimistic.   The military didn't just come in and take over in a military coup.  Millions of people in the streets were asking the military to intervene.   They ousted Morsi and installed a civilian, techocratic government, and announced that early elections will be held, and that an amended constitution will be written. 

As one commentator on MSNBC said, the people in the streets today are the same people who were rejoicing when Morsi was elected a year ago.   But his increasingly autocratic rule, exclusionary clauses in the constitution, and the increasing power of the Muslim Brotherhood were what they were against.    It was also emphaiszed by an academic Egypt expert that this is not an anti-Islamic crowd;  it is an anti-Morsi, anti-Muslim Brotherhood protest.

All signs suggest also that the military does not want to rule the country.  That's good;  they didn't do such a good job when they tried a year and a half ago before the elections.  But they can provide stability;  and the hope is that the temporary technocratic government will start solving problems, set up a group to draft a new constitution, and plan for early elections to be held.

However this turns out, it does seem strange that the first ever democratically elected president of Egypt has been overthrown after a year in office by the people calling on the military to oust him, so they can elect someone else.

That doesn't sound like democracy.   But, when you look at what's happening, it seems like maybe it's the right thing to do at this point.   It's not easy to set up a democratic government in a country without the tradition or the institutions or the people with experience from grass-roots democracy to advance to leadership positions.  But what a precedent to be setting.

To be way too flip about it, but it's a good analogy:   the people have asked (and gotten) a mulligan -- a golf term that means you get a do-over when your first shot is especially bad or there was some good excuse, like a tree in the way.    It's more used among amateurs;  not in tournaments.     But let's face it:   the Egyptians are amateurs when it comes to democracy.  This is their first full-scale attempt.

So what's the U. S. people's excuse?   We've been practicing it for over 125 years.   Why can't we get it right?

Ralph