Paul Goble
Staunton, May 28 – American political consultants offer as a fundamental rule the idea that those who want to succeed in politics must identify fears but offer optimism about the future and point to the contrasting experiences of Barry Goldwater who suffered the greatest loss in US presidential election history with Ronald Reagan who won one of the greatest victories.
Abbas Gallyamov, a former Putin speechwriter and current commentator, refers to this American experience as part of his argument that the opposition in Russia to Vladimir Putin and his war in Ukraine has forgotten that “optimism is the most powerful weapon in politics” (kasparov.ru/material.php?id=62938D917AE20).
To gain support, he says, the Russian opposition must not simply continue to criticize but must offer an optimistic assessment of what is possible. Otherwise, it will continue to suffer defeat after defeat because its pessimism will be drowned out by the upbeat language the Kremlin offers, however duplicitous that may be.
No comments:
Post a Comment