As the Arab Spring moves via the Islamist Winter into the Unpredictable Summer, six thoughts on the ouster of Egypt’s president and its possible repercussions.

1. Elections do not equal democracy

In case anyone needed reminding, true democracy involves a great deal more than elections, even relatively free elections like those that brought Mohammed Morsi to power. A genuine, thriving, stable democracy requires the protection of a range of rights and freedoms, not just a one-time opportunity to cast a ballot. These include freedom to vote your conscience without fear of the consequences, true freedom to speak your mind, access to diverse and uncensored media, minority rights under majority rule, freedom of religion and of assembly, and a great deal more.

Egypt had hardly begun the process of transition to such an era, and Morsi did not accept many of democracy’s imperatives. Now this vast, failing country is back to square one, with the nondemocratic ouster of an undemocratic, elected president.

2. America’s incoherence

It is striking, however, that the world power best qualified — in terms of its influence, its financial clout, and its moral standing — to at least try to signal a path that would lead to long-term democracy has become so marginal to what began as the Arab Spring. The United States chose not to support the brief, brave push for freedom in Iran in 2009; it has tried to keep out of the ongoing slaughter in Syria; it opted to encourage the ouster of Hosni Mubarak in 2011 and sought to delude itself about the anti-democratic, Islamist nature of the Muslim Brotherhood. And it appears simply to have thrown up its hands in self-assumed impotence at the events of the last few days, sending incoherent messages that few are even bothering to try to interpret.

It makes for a sorry coincidence, at a time when the United States is rightly celebrating its own independence, that it today seems so hesitant in helping those who seek to chart the complex course to similar freedom in the Arab world.

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