Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2019/07/06/ekrem-imamoglu-ftw.html
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Erdogan famously said
“Democracy is like a bus- when you reach your stop, you get off.”
Hopefully he’s son going to realise another way in which democracy resembles a bus- it’s very hard to stop it by standing in front of it.
Here’s to the renewal of secularism, democracy and freedom in Turkey 
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I thought Erdogan’s stronghold was the rural areas and Ankara, not Istanbul. This might be a good sign but I wouldn’t count the chickens yet.
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Exactly. Like most right-wing populists his mass base is the less urban, less suburban, more rural, less educated, less wealthy who are conned into thinking he and his corrupt cronies are ‘looking out for them’ compared to the liberal ‘elite’ who only look out for themselves.
The cognitive dissonance - it hurts!
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I have a date in Constantinople.
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They’ll be waiting in Istanbul…
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Hahaha, I couldn’t resist…
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I love They Might Be Giants.
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Once a right-wing populist leader starts messing with their money in the service of cementing his personality cult, establishment conservatives start opposing him, too. With any luck it’s not too late for Turkey to get rid of this … turkey.
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Now Imamoglu is complaining that Syrian refugees are colonising parts of Istanbul and stealing Turkish jobs.
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I recently learned that Istanbul is a derivative of a nickname the city always had, more than a re-naming. basically it means “in the city” derived from the same root as Greek cities with the suffix “-opolis”. So when it was Constantinople, it kinda meant in the city of Constantine. then just shortened to “the city”. It probably helped that it sounded a bit like “islam-bol” - a phrase which does mean “plenty of islam” apparenty.
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It was won by 4 169 765 to 4 156 036 votes, 48.77% to 48.61%, according to Wikipedia. That can’t be the “biggest landslide in 35 years”. And in fact Wikipedia also has articles for the two previous elections that show bigger margins in favor of AKP.
Anyway, good news. The world is in a similar situation to the 1930’s, but it looks like we have learned something, and there’s a reaction.
You started it. 
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Erdogan is likely to pull a page from the trump book of lies and whining…obviously the election was tampered with, the results are fake. trumps policy of never accepting defeat and never accepting reality has stood him well with his idiot base. When this bunch comes face to face with reality they don’t like they collectively deny it then believe their own bullshit. It seems to work well for that lot.
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Don’t you mean the Four Lads? 
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That was the March election, which was close enough that Erdogan demanded a rematch. The June election was won 54.21% to 44.99%
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So, basically the same exact formula that seems to work so well in the states?
You have right-wing populists in the US? Gosh!
Sadly, yes, it is a universal formula. The only solution is education (which includes a genuinely free press/media able to inform and educate its audience; today’s free press is free to be owned by vested interests determined to further the ignorance and false fear, to further its owners’ and their friends’ agendas).
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