Chris Navin

No great surprise. Look for U.S. and Israeli relations with Egypt to deteriorate as Morsi consolidates power further.

‘In a more visually symbolic move, two days ago, Morsi’s government ordered that all of the revolutionary graffiti on the walls surrounding Tahrir Square should be wiped clean. For many families of those who have died during and since the 2011 uprising, the faces posted on the walls were the only recognition they received after the loss of their loved ones. For many other Egyptians, this graffiti was the only remaining evidence that a revolution had even taken place.’

The State Department is getting a little testy having to defend the party line on the Libyan embassy attacks.

Obama cancels bilateral Morsi meeting.

Related On This Site: From Al Jazeera English: ‘Morsi Wins Egypt’s Presidential Election’…Adam Garfinkle At The American Interest on Egypt: ‘Still More of the Same—and Something New’…are we still on a liberalizing, Westernizing trajectory?, however slow the pace? Adam Garfinkle At The American Interest: ‘What Did The Arab Spring Really Change?’

From Abu Muqawama: ‘Mubarak And Me’…From Michael Totten: ‘The New Egyptian Underground’…Michael Totten At The American Interest: “A Leaner, Meaner Brotherhood”

Francis Fukuyama At The American Interest Online: ‘Political Order in Egypt’

Walter Russell Mead At The American Interest: ‘Mubaraks, Mamelukes, Modernizers and Muslims’……James Kirchik At The American Interest: ‘Egyptian Liberals Against the Revolution’

Full piece here.

Douthat arrives at a Beltway party, of sorts:

‘In reality, our government isn’t running trillion-dollar deficits because we’re letting the working class get away with not paying its fair share. We’re running those deficits because too many powerful interest groups have a stake in making sure the party doesn’t stop.

When you look around the richest precincts of today’s Washington, you don’t see a city running on paternalism or dependency. You see a city running on exploitation.’

I can’t blame the folks who’ve moved to D.C. to seek their fortunes, to go where the the jobs are, to go where their spouses are as part of a larger demographic trend, but it’s a company town, and that company’s business is politics.

I don’t know for sure if America is in decline or just in a depression, or near-depression with a very polarized politics at the moment. Perhaps we’re in relative decline compared with other emerging nations as some have argued, and it’s possible that everyone focusing upon our politics may be a sign of of decline.

Since 1988: George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton for two terms, George W. Bush, almost Hilary Clinton, (still out there for 2016?). Maybe our political life has calcified, as though we stopped looking forward in a way, directing American idealism and opportunity instead through Washington as a means to other ends.

The less people have, and the less they’re confident in having enough of something, in my experience, the more they focus on what’s there, and fight over it.

Just to be contrarian, too, there may come a time when fighting to maintain what’s in Washington, and what’s here, and what can be, becomes just as important as riding the public wave of sentiment building against it.

All of this said, these are some darker thoughts on a Monday morning, which have little analysis and probably even less predictive value. Obviously, as Douthat points out, Washington’s grown enormously of late.

Related On This Site: The NY Times op-ed writer and a practicing Catholic? William Saletan and Ross Douthat At Slate: ‘Liberalism Is Stuck Halfway Between Heaven And Earth’…Douthat’s The Grand New Party…Ross Douthat At First Principles: ‘The Quest for Community in the Age of Obama: Nisbet’s Prescience’

Richard Lieber In The World Affairs Journal–Falling Upwards: Declinism, The Box Set

Did the same thing happen in higher ed..ever more inclusion and divvying up the pie until we can’t any longer?: On this site, see: Louis Menand At The New Yorker: ‘Live And Learn: Why We Have College’..

Walter Russell Mead takes a look at the blue model (the old progressive model) from the ground up in NYC to argue that it’s simply not working. Check out his series at The American Interest. He has a big vision with some holes in it, but it’s one that embraces change boldly.