The problem with the elections in Iraq

The problem with the elections in Iraq is that they were premature, forcing the democratic process on a nation without liberal democratic institutions.

The result was that the elections forced people who did not think of themselves as categories were forced to do so, in the context of coalition politics. Suddenly everyone had to chose whether they were mainstream Sunni, Wahabi-style Sunni Iraq-leaning Shiite, Iran-leaning Shiite, etc.

In nascent democracies, elections often sharpen civil divisions and harden attitudes.

I am reminded of this watching how, thanks to election coverage, everyone in America is now a voting category: black or latino or white or liberal or centrist or whatever.

So it's easy to see how a process that divides people so even within one party's primary in the world's oldest democracy could have moved shattered, occupied Iraq in the direction of civil war.