I argued that as long as we can apply pressure on the PA to continue to have honest elections and make sure losers pack their bags, in time, the Palestinians may elect rational leaders:
So let's cut off aid to the PA but funnel it to NGOs that build democratic institutions and civic organizations. Our goal should be to promote democracy. So rather than trying to nullify this election result, we should make sure that there will more elections, and that those results will be honored by even a Hamas government that loses.
We can't make them elect good men. But we can insist they keep holding elections until they decide to elect good men.
Secretary Rice appears to agree:
"What is the alternative to believing in democracy so that people can express themselves?" Rice replied. "The alternative is to say that they shouldn't have the right to express themselves. The alternative is to say that it is better that the people of the Middle East continue to have no say in who will govern them, continue to have no say in how their interests are going to be represented."
She added this caveat: "... those who win elections have an obligation to govern democratically, and I hope the people who elected -- who elect governments will hold them to the obligation to govern democratically. That means that the same people who have used the open political system to come to power have to keep the system open to opposition to their views and to their ideas."
As many people point out, an election alone does not create democracy. By the same token, an election result that we don't like doesn't mean democracy has died. We need to keep working on them until they elect good men. And as long as we can pressure the Palestinian government to keep holding elections, I'm an optimist enough to believe that eventually they will.
UPDATE: Victor Hanson writes in a simliar vein that we should support the process and not the people:
Past realist failures at propping up dictators are postfacto reinvented as sobriety, while the messy and belated democratic correction is derided as foolery. Even the election of Hamas and the honesty it brings are welcome news: Support the process, not always the result, while stopping the subsidy and dialogue if such terrorists come to power. Let them stew in their own juice, not ours.
Democracy is a process and not an event. And in any case, how can we possibly say democracy is bad if the results aren't to our liking? As I wrote, accepting the results of democracy without approving of the winners or helping them gives our democracy call credibility and undermines attacks that our promotion of democracy is just a means to put puppets in charge.
