Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Iran President, Slams Homosexuality As An 'Ugly Behavior'

[Ash_F]

147. First of all, I challenge you to disprove anything in post #133

Because it disproved what you wrote in the previous post. 2009 was not to replace the Ayatollah, but to elect the President. And I do think he won, though I was supporting the reformists. Polls by multiple Western organizations reflected a 60-35 split between conservatives and reformists on the presidential candidates. So unless you think organizations such as The New America Foundation and the International Peace Institute are stooges for Ahmadinejad, then your wows and amazement have no point.

In parliament, it's more like 60-40 now with more independents going left, so yay. I expect further gains in 2016 but still a conservative majority. All major conservative parties are very far right so none are going to switch. There will be a conservative president in 2013

To answer the question of whether I think Iran is a democracy. That is not a yes or no question. It needs to be more democratic than it is. The current Supreme Leader/Guardian Council/Assembly relationship is a huge obstacle to true democracy for one thing. It creates a closed loop political system that is hard for candidates to break into. The office of supreme leader should not even exist. I would rather see something akin to a European parliamentary system(The US system is also closed loop for other reasons, though less severe).

But using statements like "absolute power" "dictatorship" and "un-elected" is just ignorant. It reminds me of people who could not accept that Obama won it here and thought it was some kind of conspiracy. Or the "Bushitler" posters we had on this site until 2008. In order to have a constructive discussion, you have to accept the facts, even if they are sometimes ugly.