At Pajamas Media, Michael Totten pointed out this excellent post today by Egyptian blogger Sandmonkey. The pro-democracy activist — who was rumored to have been arrested by Egyptian authorities today — wrote that some of his fellow citizens appear to be tiring of the mass demonstrations, and are showing signs that they may accept Mubarak’s rule until the next scheduled elections:

We started getting calls asking people to stop protesting because “we got what we wanted” and “we need the country to start working again.” People were complaining that they miss their lives. That they miss going out at night, and ordering Home Delivery. That they need us to stop so they can resume whatever existence they had before all of this. All was forgiven, the past week never happened and it’s time for Unity under Mubarak’s rule right now.

To all of those people I say: NEVER! I am sorry that your lives and businesses are disrupted, but this wasn’t caused by the Protesters. The Protesters aren’t the ones who shut down the internet that has paralyzed your businesses and banks: The government did.

But despite his vow to keep fighting, the blogger concluded the post with little hope that the protesters will be able to bring about the democratic reforms they’ve been struggling for.

“I have no illusions about this regime or its leader, and how he will pluck us and hunt us down one by one till we are over and done with and 8 months from now will pay people to stage fake protests urging him not to leave power, and he will stay ‘because he has to acquiesce to the voice of the people,’” wrote Sandmonkey. “This is a losing battle and they have all the weapons, but we will continue fighting until we can’t.”

The post is worth reading in full, as it gives a great perspective from someone who has been involved in the protests from the beginning. It’s important to remember that, despite the recent reports of looters, Islamic extremists, and violent rioters involved in the protests, a yearning for liberal democracy still exists at the heart of the demonstrations. Unfortunately, these democratic activists are caught in the middle of a fight between two extremes that both go against their interests: Islamist groups and the secular but oppressive Mubarak regime.