Dynamist Blog

A Great Day

By demonstrating great physical courage, the voters of Iraq quite consciously reclaimed the dignity and self-respect sapped by decades of Saddam's oppression. Today's election was their revolution, the moment when they rose up and took control of their destinies. It was a great day--and it wasn't about us.

Contrary to the impression you might have gotten from assorted blogs--the impression, indeed, that Professor Postrel got from his morning surfing--the mainstream media stories (NYT here, WaPost here), were not merely positive but downright moving. CNN had me tearing up. Today, blogs were a nice supplement, but they were by no means essential.

UPDATE: I like Ann Althouse's post, "The Blue Finger of Democracy": "It was only a few days ago that there was talk that the ink-stained finger would be a dangerous identification, that would mark people for retaliation, that people would need to hide it. Now we see the pictures of people actively displaying what was devised as a utilitarian safeguard, turning it into a proud new symbol of the love of democracy." One blue (or purple) finger puts the voter in danger; a whole city of them creates safety in numbers.

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