Why does an American have to put a question mark after the goal of democracy for the Egyptian people? Isn’t that what we all want? And why is it even up to us? Since when do we have to be consulted?

You wouldn’t know to listen to the American media — and especially the folks on the Right — that the Egyptians have a right to govern themselves because … they have a right to. They don’t lose that right just because a bunch of people on the other side of the world think they might not decide “responsibly.” Yes, even if that means al-Ikhwan, the Muslim Brotherhood, takes part in electoral politics.

Never mind that there’s no Khomeini figure for extremists to rally around. Never mind that there are no sex-segregated marches, with the women in full chadour, shouting for an Islamic republic, like in Iran in 1979. Never mind that the Egyptian people have seen what the Islamic Republic of Iran does to democracy advocates and know not to let that happen.

In the minds of too many Americans, Islamists, if not Muslims generally, are both totally single-minded in their pursuit of power and demonically clever. Once al-Ikhwan joins the process, it is in complete control, and things go rapidly to hell. Better to dispense with democracy altogether than let them in. (Of course, they tried that in Algeria, canceling elections because it looked like the Islamists would win, and ended up with a civil war that killed 1 to 200,000 people.)

To those of us old enough to remember the Cold War, this is all terribly familiar.

Once again, the Right-wing is trying to tell the American people that there is a diabolical enemy out there, one so dangerous that we should drop all the other goals we might be pushing for and unite — under their leadership, of course — to fight. It’s a neat trick. And we have to be sure that this time, they don’t get away with it.