ELEANOR HALL: That is a big shift for you, isn't it? To go from a registered Republican voter to an Obama supporter. FRANCIS FUKUYAMA: Yeah, but I think a number of people are doing that this year because I think the world is different at this juncture and we need a different foreign policy and there is this larger question about in American politics, I do think that we are at the end of a long generational cycle that began with Reagan's election back in 1980 and I think unless you have a degree of competition and alternation in power, certain ideas and habits are going to get too entrenched. ELEANOR HALL: Barack Obama talks a lot about sort of big change and what sort of revolution do you expect him to deliver in the United States if he does become President? FRANCIS FUKUYAMA: Well, that is an interesting question because I think that one of our problems in the United States is that the existing polarisation has gotten very debilitating where you can not talk about certain issues like raising taxes or starting program in investing in infrastructure without this being cast in this old ideological debate and so I think that he probably got a better chance at trying to forge a different kind of rhetoric. Different ways of thinking about that." http://www.abc.net.au/worldtoday/content/2008/s2257118.htm
ELEANOR HALL: That is a big shift for you, isn't it? To go from a registered Republican voter to an Obama supporter.
FRANCIS FUKUYAMA: Yeah, but I think a number of people are doing that this year because I think the world is different at this juncture and we need a different foreign policy and there is this larger question about in American politics, I do think that we are at the end of a long generational cycle that began with Reagan's election back in 1980 and I think unless you have a degree of competition and alternation in power, certain ideas and habits are going to get too entrenched.
ELEANOR HALL: Barack Obama talks a lot about sort of big change and what sort of revolution do you expect him to deliver in the United States if he does become President?
FRANCIS FUKUYAMA: Well, that is an interesting question because I think that one of our problems in the United States is that the existing polarisation has gotten very debilitating where you can not talk about certain issues like raising taxes or starting program in investing in infrastructure without this being cast in this old ideological debate and so I think that he probably got a better chance at trying to forge a different kind of rhetoric. Different ways of thinking about that."
http://www.abc.net.au/worldtoday/content/2008/s2257118.htm
