Stanley, I think you make a lot of important points in this post (and the others too). Democracy obviously depends on much more than elections. I wrote about this in a National Interest piece on conservative foreign policy last year (sub required). Because no meditation on anything related to conservatism is complete without coming up with a proposed new label, I suggested the name “neo-realists” for conservatives who take the best from the neo-cons (basically the idealism) and the realists (the prudence and the kind of deeper understanding of the process of liberalization that you’ve been writing about). I was interested to see that the Wall Street Journal (sub required) described Condi and those around her this week–and I’m not trying to take credit here because the word has long bounced around with various connotations–as “neo-realists.” So I feel a movement afoot. What do you say, Stanley, are you a “neo-realist”? If you join up, it will be me, my anonymous National Interest co-author, you, and…Condi Rice. We’ll be in good company.