Chrenkoff guest blogger Dan Foty has just come back from Ukraine, and shares his impressions on why Ukraine’s revolution will prove a lasting success:
My main concerns, though, were that the Ukrainians might succumb to two problems which tend to blight "revolutions" of various sorts – 1) An over-investment in a belief that a charismatic leader can magically overcome all problems immediately (followed by an unpleasant backlash when that doesn’t happen); 2) A revolution becomes "permanent" with horrid consequences (which is usually the case). The pleasant surprise on these counts was the basic sense of "normalcy" which pervaded everything. On the first count, there seemed to be no expectations that Mr. Yushchenko and his team will be instantaneous miracle workers; the sense I got was that this was all very straightforward – he was the legitimate majority choice in the voting and this verdict must be respected. On the second count, it was as if the "revolution" had been done right – having achieved its objectives, the revolution disbanded and went home.
This is great news to hear. I had some initial concerns that the expectations placed on Yushchenko by his supporters, not to mention his opponents in Eastern Ukraine, might be too high. I never thought I’d be saying I’m pleased that expectations are low.
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