(CNN) -- Twenty years ago, Edward Djerejian, a former U.S. diplomat, famously worried that Islamists would exploit democratic elections to come to power, after which they would pull the democratic ladder up behind them. Instead of one man, one vote, he said, Islamists wanted one man, one vote, one time. Last week, Egypt's President Mohamed Morsy, a member of the Muslim Brotherhood, and his country's first democratically elected president, seemed to fulfill Djerejian's grim prophecy. In a series of unilateral amendments to Egypt's interim constitution, Morsy declared that his word "is final and binding and cannot be appealed by any way or to any entity," and that he is empowered to "take the necessary actions and measures to protect the country and the goals of the revolution."
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Egyptian President Mohamed Morsy announced measures vs. judiciary
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Tarek Masoud: Some say this shows an Islamist party can't be trusted to run a democracy
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He says the power grab isn't a result of the Muslim Brotherhood, but of Egypt's power vacuum
Egyptian
Instead, the @placeholder president simply did what Egyptian presidents have been doing for more than 60 years — that is, loosening institutional restraints on their authority in order to more easily fulfill their agendas.
Islamists
Islamists
Islamist
The ostensible reason for the dissolution was that the parliamentary election law ran afoul of some foggy constitutional provision, but the real reason was that @placeholder dominated parliament, and the court feared that this Islamist legislature, coupled with a Muslim Brotherhood president, would lead Egypt irretrievably down the road to theocracy.
Islamists
Islamists
Islamist
The ostensible reason for the dissolution was that the parliamentary election law ran afoul of some foggy constitutional provision, but the real reason was that Islamists dominated parliament, and the court feared that this @placeholder legislature, coupled with a Muslim Brotherhood president, would lead Egypt irretrievably down the road to theocracy.
Egyptian
But the @placeholder people and the generals had grown weary of each other.
Egyptian
In a meeting with @placeholder judges, he reassured them that he would limit his use of his new powers, but, as of this writing, his decree still stands.