But is this really the decision Georgians are making? Is the binary that clear cut? I’m not so sure.
To understand the political situation in any country, Georgia included, ask a cab driver, the old adage goes. Maybe the average Joe — or in this case, Giorgi — could shed some light.
As he steered his cab through Tbilisi’s winding roads, driving me home from the airport at 5 a.m., Giorgi gladly shared his disappointment with the country’s political elites. For him, the choice isn’t quite so simple.
“Europe and the United States won’t save us — and neither will any government, old or new. For people like myself, nothing will change. [The politicians] will keep getting richer, and I’ll have to spend night after night driving around to put food on the table that’s never enough.”
Disenchantment with the political establishment is nothing new, of course. Whether it’s former President Mikheil Saakashvili who rose to power during the 2003 Rose Revolution, or billionaire Bidzina Ivanishvili and his ruling Georgian Dream party that followed, leaders often come in as heroes and leave (or stay) as villains.
“No one should stay in power for longer than a year if they don’t deliver something in that period,” Giorgi said. And while Saakashvili and Ivanishvili may be archenemies, they have one thing in common: for many, they held power for far too long. Saakashvili was at the helm for nine years; Ivanishvili’s Georgian Dream has been in post for 12 now.