Iranian voters go to the polls today and it will be curious if Irannian Red State voters will keep President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in office.
Iranian Red State voters put him in office in 2005 and while many people wouldn't think of him and George W. Bush as similar in reality they both won by getting voters to value fear and resentment over intellect.
The best Bush defenders can say in that Ahmadinejad is closer to Dick Cheney in terms of promoting hard line policies that harm their countries in the world's view.
The question is whether Iranian voters are willing to do in 2009 what American voters were unwilling to do in 2004, throw out an unsuccessful president who has caused great harm to the country economically and politically. (Although some question if the voters were counted correctly in Ohio in 2004 the outcome would have been different.)
Early reports show that voter turnout is high in Iran but because there are several major candidates, no one candidate might reach 50% and that could result in a runoff election.
Reading voter comments in the New York Times one can feel the impact of Red Staters in Iran and the difficulty in achieving change.
“We don’t want our country to be trapped in a no-hijab situation, with no discipline,” one woman said . “We will only accept Ahmadinejad.”
However, there have been massive rallies over the past few weeks, leading one to wonder if the desire for change that swept the U.S. in 2008 is also sweeping Iran. So will Ahmadinejad and his policies join Bush/Cheney as rejects by voters and a desire for a more thoughtful and enlightened dealings with other countries?
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