Ahmadi The Anti-Traditionalist

June 18, 2009 by Jonathan Movroydis | Filed Under Iran 

Polling actually shows that Ahmadinejad did better in urban areas than rural areas in 2005, rejecting the conventional wisdom that he is just one of the folks. Certainly making his bones in the Khomenei’s revolution wouldn’t allow him to be:

This strange meme in many media reports that Ahmadinejad has a “base” of support in the countryside is not only wrong, it’s backwards. The uprising we’re all watching on YouTube is taking place inside Ahmadinejad’s “strongholds,” such as they are.

Ahmadinejad is a “conservative” in the relative sense of the word, as he resists any and all reform of the 1979 revolution. He is not, however, a conservative in the traditional sense. Khomeinism and radical Islamism are 20th Century totalitarian ideologies. Traditional village people, conservative as they may be, have little use for them.

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