Seattle residents gathered at Westlake Center this afternoon to show their support for Anti-Mubarak demonstrators in Egypt. While the majority of the demonstrators limited their critiques to Mubarak and the oppressive regimes of other dictators throughout North and Central Africa, there was no shortage of far left groups ready to attach themselves to the movement:
Communism: The Beginning of a New Stage
A decisive state in the Egyptian revolution
U.S. Hands Off the Arab Revolution!
Support the Egyptian Revolution
I question the effectiveness of such efforts. They inject additional issues into a debate that is sufficiently complex. They dilute the power of a very simple message: the Egyptian people, after thirty-years of autocratic rule, demand the end of the Mubarak regime. The sign I posted above contains the most succinct summary of the pro-democracy movement I've seen. Most importantly, in terms of U.S. support for a new Egyptian government, they supply ammunition for right-wing commentators like Glenn Beck. Here's a clip from Friday's Rachel Maddow show that demonstrates my point:
Mr. Beck is just doing what he does best, constructing wildly hyperbolic arguments to incite fear against the Islamic world and renew cold war hysteria. As often as his claims are debunked by the likes of Maddow, Beck's rhetoric still proves persuasive to some. For large segments of the American populace, whose political consciousness evolved during the late 1970s and 1980s, any argument put forward by an organization that self-identifies as communist or socialist will prove to be a non-starter. They see the word "manifesto," images of Stalin and Hitler flood their heads and any chance at reasoned discourse dissolves.
And these groups have arguments worth presenting. U.S. foreign policy, both in the last thirty years of Mubarak's regime and as recently as last week, have backed U.S. economic and military interests over the self-determination of the Egyptian people. U.S. foreign aid to Egypt cemented Mubarak's regime and kept him in power longer. Mubarak's rule has impoverished average Egyptians while enriching Mubarak himself, as he has constructed a golden parachute for himself with financial holdings in the U.S. and abroad. All these things are true -- but if they're presented from a socialist / communist perspective, they'll largely be ignored by American audiences. On the most basic level, it's a branding problem.
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