As the Beltway continues to play "Where's Waldo" with Edward Snowden, the rest of the world considers Cairo much more important. Indeed, the Beltway really only talks about Egypt as a failure of Obama's foreign policy. On this 4th of July weekend, the ironies abound.
We celebrate the 4th of July as the day we declared our independence from England. John Adams wrote to his wife predicting these celebrations with parades and fireworks, but he was referring to July 2nd. The "coup" if it in fact was a coup occurred on the 3rd.
Perhaps the most profound statement in the Declaration of Independence is the one that states that governments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed. Like the Hokey Pokey, that 's what it's all about.
In February, 2011, the Egyptian people said loudly and clearly that they did not consent to be governed by Hosni Mubarak. US intelligence sources told us to pay attention to how the military reacted. Once the military sided with the protests, Mubarak was toast. At the time, many in the media wrote about the structural advantage that the Muslim Brotherhood had going into democratic elections.
Mubarak suppressed much of his opposition, and allowed the Muslim Brotherhood to flourish. He portrayed their Islamist devotion as radical as a means to maintain power. When he was finally deposed, the only political organization with any infrastructure was the Muslim Brotherhood.
Winning an election does not make for a democracy. What makes a democracy is the fact that there will be another election. What I mean by this is that you do not make rules because you won. You make rules based on the fact that you are going to have to win again.
Morsi was governing as though everyone supported the Muslim Brotherhood. They had a plurality but not a majority. Morsi was trying to consolidate power. The Constitution that he forced through Parliament was not supported by a majority. The people returned to the streets months ago to protest his rule.
The army spent those months trying to convince him to reform. They gave him every opportunity to regain the consent of the governed. In the end, if he had merely returned to the bargaining table, the coup would not have happened. He refused. The army, acting on behalf of the people, enforced their rejection of consent.