The View from Cairo: the More Things Change, the More They Stay the Same

The View from Cairo: The More Things Change, The More They Stay the Same

By Liam Stack
First Published: November 8, 2006

By the time polls on the East Coast of the United States closed, it was 3 o’clock in the morning in Cairo. Waking up early the next day to watch the results on TV, I could not tell if I was excited by what I saw or if I was having an out of body experience.

Although a few important races have yet to be decided, the broad trend is clearly visible.

The midterm elections have delivered a slim but significant victory for the Democratic party. It has taken control of the House of Representatives for the first time since 1994, and is a Virginia recount away from a possible victory in the Senate as well. They have also won the majority of the country’s governorships, taking over from Republicans in traditionally liberal states like New York and Massachusetts, but also winning races in more conservative places like Arkansas, Ohio and Colorado.

Taking the stage at the Democrat’s victory party, Nancy Pelosi, the fashionable San Francisco grandmother who led the Democrats in the House minority and is set to become the country’s first female House Majority leader, declared “Mr. President, we need a new direction in Iraq.”

But it is far from clear that the Democrats will be able to provide the country, or the world, with any such thing. There is little consensus within the Democratic Party, or American society as a whole, about what the United States should do in Iraq. Overall, the American political landscape depressingly few fresh ideas about the super power’s role in the world, and in the Middle East in particular. The rhetorical promotion of democracy in the Arab world, some version of the “War on Terror,” and unflinching support for Israel and Zionism are all mainstream, bipartisan issues in the United States.

While the Democrats host victory parties in Washington D.C., and the talking-heads of the media fill the air waves with talk of a political sea change, it is unlikely that anything will change on the ground. That is especially true in the Middle East.

I am American, and when I go home people often as me what it is like to live in the Arab world. Is it safe? Do they hate us?

Usually I respond with anecdotes. Once in a taxi, the driver began to tell me, in quick and heated ‘ameyya, his opinions of the United States. I confessed to him that I did not understand what he was saying. He looked at me hard for a moment, thinking, then rummaged through a pile of change in his dashboard ash tray and pulled out a rare five piaster coin. He held one of its faces up to me.

“Bush,” he said. He then turned to the other side of the coin. “Mubarak.”

Another man I once knew put it to me in clearer English. “Americans are good people, but I hate the government. It’s just like here.”

Sitting in my Zamalek apartment and watching the election results on CNN International, I thought of these men. It is striking how far removed the political intrigues of Congress are from the real world in which all of us — Egyptian and foreigner, in Zamalek or Shubra — live.

Very little will change now that the Democrats, famous for fractious infighting, have a a slim lead in one house of Congress. It is unlikely that they will push the United States in a truly new direction, or finally make change for the cab drivers of Cairo.