Politics & Power Quote by Bob Schaffer

Legitimacy is being framed here less as a constitutional achievement than as a geopolitical product: if the world “stands with” Ukraine’s democratic reformers, the reformers will supposedly acquire both “leverage” and “courage” to build a “legitimate republic.” That wording is doing quiet but heavy work. It treats international recognition not as a moral pat on the back, but as a tool that changes domestic power calculations. “As long as” is the tell: support is conditional, sustained, and instrumental. The sentence reads like a manual for opposition strategy, where belief itself becomes a resource.

Schaffer’s real audience isn’t only Ukrainians; it’s foreign governments, media, and voters being invited to see themselves as decisive actors in someone else’s democratization. The subtext: without visible Western backing, Ukraine’s reformers risk being outgunned by entrenched forces, and the political center of gravity will tilt back toward the old order. “The opposition believes” is carefully chosen too - what matters is not just actual support, but the perception that support is durable enough to justify risk.

Naming Viktor Yushchenko locks the argument to a specific “legitimate” outcome: legitimacy is equated with one leader and one faction rather than with procedures that would confer legitimacy even if an ally loses. That’s the rhetorical gamble. It sells democracy as a movement but markets it as a person, reflecting the era’s Orange Revolution logic: democratic aspirations packaged through a recognizable figure who can be backed, defended, and, if necessary, rescued by international pressure.