Inappropriate Content: Democracy

Reuters covers Rice's speech at American University Cairo:

"We are all concerned for the future of Egypt's reforms when peaceful supporters of democracy -- men and women -- are not free from violence. The day must come when the rule of law replaces emergency decrees, and when the independent judiciary replaces arbitrary justice," she added.

In Saudi Arabia, [Rice] criticized the kingdom for jailing three activists last month after they petitioned for the monarchy to move toward a constitutional model, saying appeals for reform were not a crime.

"In Saudi Arabia, brave citizens are demanding accountable government," she said in a major policy speech on Middle East democracy delivered in Cairo.

Les Campbell, the National Democratic Institute's head of democracy promotion in the Mid East and North Africa was recently quoted as saying "The administration is using very strong rhetoric. I appreciate and applaud that--the consistent message of democracy and freedom. It gives people strength. Arab activists who might otherwise have been quiet feel if they are thrown in jail, they will be bailed out; if they have an idea, there will be funding. [However,] support for taking risks is lagging behind the rhetoric. It's not clear that the U.S. Embassy is going to be a back-up. And, while we can provide training, we can't provide financial support."

Michael Signer recently blogged the President's statement on the Iranian election:

Was President Bush really trying to trigger a wave of America-loving popular reformist revolt in Iran? Or was he just trying to bolster flagging public confidence here at home in the clumsy democratization experiment currently underway in Iraq?

Well, whatever his intentions were (not trying to be too mysterious here), the President was rewarded with large increases in the turn-out among Iran's conservative base. As Brian Murphy of the AP reports,
The sharp barbs from President Bush were widely seen in Iran as damaging to pro-reform groups because the comments appeared to have boosted turnout among hard-liners in Friday's election -- with the result being that an ultraconservative now is in a two-way showdown for the presidency. "I say to Bush: `Thank you,'" quipped Intelligence Minister Ali Yunesi. "He motivated people to vote in retaliation."
The first-round elections on Friday yielded two candidates: the mild reformer and former president, Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, and the hard-line conservative Mayor of Tehran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. The populist Ahmadinejad -- running on a platform of reducing poverty -- finished a surprising second.

Signer sums up with "there's an utter imbalance between the Administration's rhetoric and its practice."

On the one hand, there's a limit to what we can do to back up our rhetoric in Saudi Arabia. They have oil, ergo, they have us by the balls. However, there are ways to influence these regimes; Joseph Braude's recent essay on the most successful efforts to change the culture of the Arab world, by, of course, Big Tobacco:

there's a dogged determination to view each autocracy not as a monolith but as a mosaic of individuals with conflicting interests of their own, some of whom are identified as "friends" of the tobacco industry and others as "threats" or "opponents." In this respect, [the Big Tobacco lobby group]'s behavior in Cairo, for example, has been similar to that of some of the more relentless lobbying groups in Washington today.

That's one place to start. Giving Les Campbell and NDI is another. Unfortunately, the administration can't seem to get out of the gate.