Media standards for U.$. and Iranian elections

On November 1, 1972, George McGovern held a rally in New York City in his campaign for the presidency. McGovern ended up with 37.5% of the vote,(1) but he carried New York City,(1) Massachusetts and DC.

In the lead up to the Iranian election of June 14, 2009, Mir Hossein Mousavi held large rallies.(2) The Iranian regime reports he won 33.75% of the vote and carried Tehran.(3)

If one were to judge U.$. elections by the votes or rallies in New York City, Democrats would rarely lose. A candidate such as Walter Mondale clobbers Reagan in places such as New York and Ann Arbor, Michigan.

In the Western media we do see admissions that perhaps the incumbent bought the rural poor vote with potato distribution.

“‘Death to potatoes’ doesn’t roll off the tongue like, ‘yes we can,’ or ‘are you better off today than you were four years ago.’ But potatoes is the campaign slogan of the day in Iran. Presidential elections there are set for Friday. Anti-government students say President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is trying to buy votes by giving out free vegetables to the poor, hence the potato thing.”(4)

Now that the Western media is saying the anti-government protests are about lipstick and showing ankle, I’ll take the free vegetables, thank you.

That’s not to say that I support the current president or oppose the opposition candidate. We internationalists in the imperialist countries are only saying this is not such an unusual or freakish result that it merits some kind of non-stop television coverage as a scandal.

While the media sells papers and tv commercials with talk of bared ankle and dead 27-year-old females, the real story is class. Yes, class is the question, and it is connected with province and education privileges. The opposition carried Tehran. In a pattern not unlike much of the Third World, Tehran has 17.8% of the population but 25.9% of Iran’s income.(5) That’s in a country with a per capita income of $2400 a year. So, I’ll take the free vegetables thank you. The importation of Western bromides of political correctness can and should wait, indefinitely.

Notes:
1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S._presidential_election,_1972
2. http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2009/06/irans_disputed_election.html
3. http://www.iran-daily.com/1388/3423/html/
4. http://marketplace.publicradio.org/display/web/2009/06/10/pm_iran_elections/
5. http://www.payvand.com/news/05/oct/1254.html