Egyptian el-Sisi and Turkish Erdogan represent two completely opposite models: The former “sort of” took leadership by force, but seems to impose democracy and relative secularism. The latter reached power democratically, but seems to impose a religious theocracy.

The built-in weakness of democracy is the option to eliminate it from within, using democratic tools. This weakness was already discussed in ancient Greek times, and has been exploited during history, including during Germany’s dark era of the previous century. The very frightening existence of this weakness should serve as an indication for encouraging those who promote democracy — much more than promoting those who reached power democratically.

And this is where the Americans got it wrong. They seem to ignore this built-in logic problem, while preferring the method in which a ruler takes power – over the methods he/she promotes for empowering future rulers.

The Americans aren’t the only ones suffering from this blindness. The Israeli parliament also promotes political parties whose agenda is specifically and explicitly against democracy. In the meantime they still constitute a minority, but just like in Turkey – their power in recent years is on the rise.