Ever since the war in Syria began, there has been a constant effort by the pro-Baathist left to prove that the dictator has the overwhelming support of the people.
Typical was the embrace of the 2012 Doha Poll that supposedly reflected a 55 percent desire that Bashar al-Assad remain in office. That led Jonathan Steele to tell Guardian readers that “Most Syrians back President Assad, but you’d never know from western media”. If you took a few minutes to analyze the polling methodology, you’d discover that only 98 non-expatriate Syrians took part in the survey and that by definition they were on the Internet, from which the results were tabulated. In other words, if you were a farmer or a truck driver from Idlib, your opinion was not factored in. Much to my dismay, political science professor and journalist Vijay Prishad has been beside himself over the Syrian elections. In the past, he has cultivated an image of being a careful and neutral observer of Syrian politics but the election results have somehow intoxicated him like a bottle of champagne. On twitter, where serious analysis goes by the wayside to begin with, he is jumping up and down like a delegate to an American presidential convention. full: http://louisproyect.org/2014/06/04/should-the-left-be-buoyed-by-the-syrian-election/ _______________________________________________ pen-l mailing list [email protected] https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l
