Word: galston
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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Besides being a textbook case of political co-optation, Bush's program highlights the importance of foreign affairs in elections. In 1988 "about 22% of voters cited foreign and defense policy as their primary concerns," says William Galston, who served as Walter Mondale's issues director. "Almost 80% of those people voted for Bush. It was they who provided Bush's margin of victory, and more will probably vote those concerns in '92 as Bush persuades them that the world is still an unstable place...
...Galston and other prominent Democratic campaign strategists like David Sawyer and John Rendon are apoplectic at the sight of the current crop of candidates blithely walking away from foreign policy and defense issues. "Idiocy, pure and simple," says Sawyer. "There are certain tests a prospective President must pass before he can seriously contest the election. Foremost among these is the question of whether a particular candidate is imaginable in the role of Commander in Chief...
...Galston, it is all obvious. "Over the past 60 years," he says, "every President has sent troops in harm's way. The people know that a President's power to get people killed is almost always his alone. Conversely, they know that no President is singly responsible for anything that happens domestically -- good or bad. That's why foreign policy counts for so much." For these consultants, the lesson is basic. "The key is not to concede the territory," says Rendon. "Push all the buttons, make lots and lots of speeches. Try your damnedest to articulate a vision. You have...
Public affairs professor William Galston of the University of Maryland says the practice of blaming others stems from unrealistic expectations of the modern, risk-avoiding age. "If something bad happens to us," he says, "we are outraged because our lives are supposed to be perfect. Two generations ago, if infants were born with birth defects, it was considered an act of God or an act of nature. Today if the baby is not absolutely perfect, the tendency is to believe the doctor is responsible. We've created a set of social expectations and a legal structure in which the blame...
Communitarianism is an idea still in flux, more than a slogan but less than a coherent philosophy. Even the name may give way to something more catchy; Galston tentatively offered up "neo-progressives." But whatever the label and whatever its political future, it is an encouraging sign that thinkers are groping to find alternatives to the selfishness inherent in interest-group liberalism and conservative laissez-faire economics...