On Mob Rule: Egypt government falls a second time

President Morsi of Egypt is out, just like that. When President Obama stood behind the demonstrators in Libya, Tunisia and Egypt and other nations during the so-called Arab Spring, my thought went to the phrase mob rule.

When the president explicitly supported the Arab Spring movement in some of the Middle East and North Africa countries, he said the following while discussing the actions taken in Libya.

Libya sits directly between Tunisia and Egypt — two nations that inspired the world when their people rose up to take control of their own destiny.

When the president supported these government take-overs by the people, is he not supporting the same kind of change in the future? Doesn’t his approval set up the possibility – really the probability – the same kind of demonstrations and take-overs will happen over and over and over again?

Mob rule. Get enough people together in a big demonstration and you can force the overthrow of a government. Most news reports are suggesting the crowd size is in the tens of thousands. Let’s say there are 125,000 protesters* who pushed for the ouster of Morsi. There are 83 million people in Egypt. Yeah sure the military was involved, but it was driven by “grass roots” protestors was it not?

Mob rule and the military or rebel overthrows of governments seem to be the new acceptable standard for routine government changes in this part of the world now… and President Obama has given these movements the thumbs up.

I’m not saying this is good or bad, I’m just pointing out the new standard operating procedure. Many think we’re making the same mistakes made during the last Arab Spring … what say you?

*Update: I probably should have mentioned there are many other protestors in Egypt, outside of Tahrir Square. Charles Krauthammer just suggested one-quarter of the population is out there across the country.

Exit Question: What happens if they have another round of democratic elections and the Muslim Brotherhood wins again with a slightly different – or even the same – candidate? What happens if it turns out the same two years later? More demonstrations and another take-over two years from now?