Mousavi Might Not Be Much Better, But...

 Thoreau argues to Larison:

I have no trust in any politician, but I trust that politicians will behave better if they know that they can be removed as punishment for screwing over the populace. Clearly a lot of Iranians are fed up, and they’re taking to the streets to remove the Supreme Leader’s preferred candidate. Whether the replacement would be better is almost irrelevant, given that the replacement will take power after the people have protested an apparently rigged election and flexed their muscles in support of a platform that is allegedly reformist. If the Iranians succeed in removing Ahmadinejad and replacing him with Mousavi, and if Rafsanjani should even find a way to topple Khameini, I don’t expect that much would change over night. But I do expect that it would set in motion a different process, and that reform would follow. In fact, given how awful sudden changes can be, I hope that if Mousavi takes power the changes are gradual rather than revolutionary.