[Chad C. Mulligan]

Good post. I copied it off for later re-reading.

I’m still working my way through James Burnham’s 1943 appreciation of Machiavelli and others who wrote on the mechanics of power; Dante, Mosca, Sorel, Michels and Pareto. One thing that won’t leave me from the Machiavelli chapter is that all politicians are in it for the power, and the only remedy is death. They can’t help themselves.

[Forward the Light Brigade]

WW I and WW II was fought to save the British Empire. After the war we dismantled the Empire and replaced it with the economic US Dollar Empire. We were the new empire that ruled much of the world for decades. We became the “Ugly Americans” as bad as England in her prime. At least UK was honest and called it the “White Man’s Burden” and used Christian ideals. When Natives revolted—they used machine guns and poison gas to stop them. Now we rule but the house of cards is toppling.

[Rockingham]

The book by James Burnham that you refer to (The Machiavellians, Defenders of Freedom) is quite good and deserves to be better known. It can be hard going though, and my compliments that you are reading it.

Yes, politicians "are in it for the power" -- after all that is the nature of public office -- but the issue then becomes, is a particular politician seduced by power and focused on career, ego, and venal gains, or do they genuinely want to use power to do their job and accomplish one or more worthy objectives that they are open and clear about? I have seen and known both types, with most politicians being a changeable mixture.

Some years ago, on a controversial good government type civic issue, at a key moment, my brother and I recruited a Machiavellian type climber as an ally for a time because he saw the advantage in helping us. Yet we had no illusions about the rottenness of politics so we went to war against those on the other side using valid legal and ethics issues.

We ended several political careers and damaged others that way, enough so as to get a reputation. Eventually, no one wanted to be an advocate for the other side and we won a complete victory against the local and state political establishments. My brother and I still laugh about chasing down a powerful GOP legislator in the state capitol building during session. We trapped him like two cats running down a rodent for fun and made him squirm over the obvious lies he was telling on our issue.