If I Am Not Elected, I Imagine

In Academic Life, False Ideas Are Merely False And Useless Ones Can Be Fun To Play With. In Political Life, False Ideas Can Ruin The Lives Of Millions And Useless Ones Can Waste Precious Resources. An Intellectual's Responsibility For His Ideas Is To Follow Their Consequences Wherever They May Lead. A Politician's Responsibility Is To Master Those Consequences And Prevent Them From Doing Harm. Michael Ignatieff, A Former Professor At Harvard And Contributing Writer For The Magazine, Is A Member Of Canada's Parliament And Deputy Leader Of The Liberal Party.

Political Utopias Are A Form Of Nostalgia For An Imagined Past Projected Onto The Future As A Wish.

Genocide Is Not Just A Murderous Madness; It Is, More Deeply, A Politics That Promises A Utopia Beyond Politics - One People, One Land, One Truth, The End Of Difference. Since Genocide Is A Form Of Political Utopia, It Remains An Enduring Temptation In Any Multiethnic And Multicultural Society In Crisis.

We Can't Afford To Waste People. We Can't Afford To Have People Think The Game Is Over Before It's Begun. We've Got To Be Saying To The Canadian People: You Can't Tax Cut Your Way To A Productive 21st-century Economy. You Can Talk That Talk, But It's Not Going To Give You A Productive 21st-century Economy, Because It Will Scythe Apart The Public Goods That Make Prosperity Possible. That's What We've Got To Say, And So We Shall.

It Was Reagan Who Began The Realignment Of American Politics, Making The Republicans Into Internationalist Jeffersonians With His Speech In London At The Palace Of Westminster In 1982, Which Led To The Creation Of The National Endowment For Democracy And The Emergence Of Democracy Promotion As A Central Goal Of United States Foreign Policy.