What can we take away from what is perhaps the largest protest in human history involving tens of millions? What can we take away from a military coup ousting Egyptian President Morsi? Don't mess with Egypt's democracy - at least not while all of Egypt is watching!
The Muslim Brotherhood that set up a puppet regime in propping up Morsi, who had repeatedly attempted to consolidate power in an Islamic state, had overreached. A recent Baseera poll showed that three quarters of the Egyptian public questions whether any of his actions as president were positive. How did he get here? Some of it has to do with worsening economic conditions in Egypt, but that isn't why he is here. Islamists were already flooding the military from the bottom up. Having threatened the military as a secular institution remaining independent from a radical Islamic agenda, the Muslim Brotherhood made an even clearer enemy out of the military's leadership. Morsi tried to overthrow the checks and balances of a judiciary that was standing in the way of rushing through a constitution that represented their extreme agenda. The legitimacy of his government collapsed in the process. Some argue that this represents a dangerous precedent, and it does. The military overthrow of an elected representative is not desirable as a precedent. Yet being elected to office is not the only measure of legitimacy. The actions elected officials take to uphold or tear down the institutions of democracy are just as important to the legitimacy a government has. Morsi's administration failed miserably by this standard, and at the cost of any stability that some might have used to justify keeping him in power. His model for co-opting democratic institutions in order to overthrow them and form an oppressive Islamic state has failed.
Many of us are suspicious of the military taking control of Egypt, and with good reason. The military has an opportunity to work with the opposition and form genuinely democratic institutions. This is why the opposition is meeting with them and tentatively lending support to the military involvement. This is why people like Mohamed ElBaradei support this action. There is a danger here in military control, but there is also a danger that Egypt could become a failed state as it falls into civil war. It remains to be seen what motivation is driving the military involvement. If they intend to keep power for themselves, then Egypt will be thrown into chaos.
My heart breaks for these people. They have seen their revolution taken over by extremists and just as they have returned to Tahrir square to reclaim it, they must remain vigilant to keep the military honest. I have faith in these people. They have sent a shot across the Middle East that the people of this region will keep returning to the streets to demand real democratic reforms. Islamic radicals or military regimes that deviate from those revolutionary aims will be held to account for their actions. Morsi's ouster by the military would not have been possible had he extended himself to the opposition through genuine democratic reform. The meaning of these events in Egypt have one meaning above all others. The people of Egypt will not rest and they will be the ones who drive events as they unfold. They will return as often as necessary to bring about change. The people of Egypt are not alone and their efforts represent the aspirations of a whole region demanding more.
While Egypt is far more cosmopolitan than other countries in this region, this uprising has more in common with the rest of the unfolding events following the Arab Spring than differences. I don't claim to be able to peer into the future. This could become disastrous and at the cost of many lives and the liberty of a whole nation. I only claim that Egyptian people will not accept the efforts of those who stand in the way of democracy. As military helicopters fly over the protesters tonight, they are illuminated by lasers that the people in the streets of Tahrir Square shine on them. It is a message of support, but is also a warning: "We are watching you!" My heart is with the Egyptian people and I share their dream to finally bring about the democratic reform that is the object of the hope pouring across that country tonight, as they celebrate events that the people of Egypt were able to drive. If anyone deserves a shout out then it is the youth of Tahrir Square. They have just sent packing one of two major centers of power in Egypt, in ousting the Islamists. They sent the other one, Mubarak's dictatorship, just two years earlier. They drive the conversation and have made a measure of what our actions should look like.
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