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Ian Bremmer is the president and founder of Eurasia Group, the leading global political risk research and consulting firm started in 1998. Today, the company has offices in New York,[…]
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It’s an odd truth, but sometimes it pays not to articulate your views when running for president. Many voters don’t care about the intricacies of policy, and even more don’t want to be made to feel dumb by hearing some wonky egghead drawl on about minute political details. The masses support candidates with ideas, not plans. This applies even when an idea is infeasible: Just look at the Trump campaign.

Political scientist Ian Bremmer, president of the Eurasia group and author of the book Superpower, pinpoints two Republican candidates out of the entire field who have so far proven themselves to be coherent on the topic of foreign policy: Marco Rubio and Rand Paul. This is not to say that the others are ignoramuses, merely that thus far in the campaign, they have offered only superficial answers to questions regarding American foreign policy. There’s still plenty of time for the campaign to (hopefully) procure more articulate responses from the candidates. But, so far, Rubio’s interventionist stance and Paul’s opposing non-interventionist position stand out from the pack because they’re not superficial. Rubio and Paul have plans, not just ideas.



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