If you were given the power to change one person’s political views, whose would you change for the maximum impact (with “maximum impact” being whatever goal you want)?
(This is meant to be a discussion about what impact such switches would cause, not a discussion about the ethics of actually changing someone’s mind.)
I think the most influential person in the Chinese government would be an interesting choice. I am not sure if the actual titled leader is the real leader there, nor do I have much knowledge of their political system, but given such power I would certainly do the research to try to determine it. In a system like they have where a person can hold onto power for a very long time and be very effective in wielding that power, I think the maximum impact would be much greater than that of changing someone like the U.S. President, since a U.S. President still has Congress to contend with, and it can be very difficult for him to get any of his policies enacted if Congress isn’t agreeable.
Mitt Romney.
Wait…Is it a prerequisite that the person HAVE a political stance? Hmmm…
Living or dead?
Dead, I’m sure there are tons who would have amazing effects. But the obvious answer is Hitler. You avoid WW2, the holocaust, etc. Plus the USSR probably doesn’t expand westward if there is no WW2.
Living? I don’t know. A US president doesn’t really have ‘that’ much power compared to dictators.
Maybe Kim Jong-UN in charge of North Korea, since his is a family of assholes. But North Korea is no bigger than a province of China, so globally it doesn’t really matter what impact North Korea has outside its borders.
Maybe the premier of China. China has a lot to offer the world with regards to its ability to invest in and innovate renewable energy, medicine, communications technology, etc. So a China that took those things even more seriously would be nice.
I would love to hear Rush Limbaugh as a radical leftist.
Rupert Murdoch.
what if President Obama became a radical leftist? 
Samuel Alito
The Pope.
Ed Schultz
I don’t think the Chinese government has had a figure like that since Mao died. China’s leaders were not happy about the way Mao was able to single-handedly run the country and overrule any of them. When Mao died, they deliberately set out to change the Chinese government so that no one individual would have that much concentrated power. China is now ruled by a small committee and decisions require a consensus.
If somebody like Hu Jintao were to have a major change of political ideology and try to lead China in some significantly new direction, he’d most likely be removed from power before he accomplished very much.
This was my first thought. He’s not elected, he has tremendous media reach, and he’s been on the air for decades.
Rupert Murdoch is a good one, too. I can’t decide.
Well played.
Similar to Jenaroph’s suggestion, some interesting non-politician choices would be the Koch brothers, who have somewhat stealthily funded many conservative organizations.
How about Vladimir Putin?
The two I’d suggest are Vladimir Putin and Ayatollah Khamenei. They are both fairly secure in their power personally, but there are more liberal factions that exist in their respective countries that could provide new allies after I epiphanize them.
ETA: Curse you Gagundathar!
Russia is still run by the Russian Mafia, though, no matter what, right? I doubt they would tolerate any real positive changes that would reduce corruption.
OTOH, it could improve Russia’s behavior abroad re: Iran/Syria.
I agree that going for a dictator would have real powerful change for a small subset of people. Iran, North Korea, etc are good choices for that.
I think I would go for maximum comedic effect though. Whose political reversal would be the funniest? I think seeing a radical right-wing Ellen DeGeneres would be pretty hysterical. A super liberal Ann Coulter would be equally amazing.
Putin has mostly managed to tame the old post-Soviet oligarchs and the oligarchs who have replaced them are beholden to Putin’s government. Putin is most definitely in charge of Russia right now, although I don’t know if he could actually translate that power into the sort of liberal democratic reforms I’d have in mind.
Putin.