1
Not specificity but ambiguity is likely to augment a candidate's appeal; and appeal, not ideology, makes a leader useful to a party. Political leaders are most helpful when they can represent whatever meaning concerned groups want to see in them.

...Once aspirants for leadership become incumbents, some of the ambiguity about their policies disappears and so, typically, does a corresponding share of their popularity. The ability to attract or hold a following now hinges upon developments that are unique to the particular time. A domestic or foreign crisis is invaluable in maintaining the leader's symbolic appeal...
p.63–64

2
While the labels for enemies and for threats and the names of leaders and reassurances change from time to time, their consequences for daily life and for well-being remain stable.

...Manifestly, there is social change over long time periods, catalyzed chiefly by radical, and usually slow, alterations in environment, demography, and modes of production...

Political and and governmental actions do not initiate social change, though they reflect it and thrive upon the belief that they cause it.
p. 124

Murray Edelman
Two excerpts from Constructing the Political Spectacle