So, how does the old saying go...even a blind pig can find some acorns, or something like that...
Well, imagine my surprise when I see this headline on the NUT...ooops, I mean NYT website...
Machiavelli, as your neighborhood Grouchy Historian recently blogged, is still very relevant...
Of course, the NYT being the NYT...had to get in the obligatory Obama reference....
However, I will compliment the authors on their summary, which was very well done:
If they have 'nads of steel and are willing to rule with the same iron fist that Barry and Harry have shown...maybe there is hope to repeal Obamacare, Dodd-Frank, reign in the EPA, balance the budget, and generally undo the damage of the last eight years....
HISTORY, as always...shows the way........
Well, imagine my surprise when I see this headline on the NUT...ooops, I mean NYT website...
Why Machiavelli Still Matters
Yup, it seems some old dead white guys still matter...well duh.Machiavelli, as your neighborhood Grouchy Historian recently blogged, is still very relevant...
Of course, the NYT being the NYT...had to get in the obligatory Obama reference....
What would Machiavelli have thought when President Obama apologized for the fiasco of his health care rollout? Far from earning respect, he would say, all he received was contempt.Well, at least they got something right with their next sentence...
As one of Machiavelli’s favorite exemplars, Cesare Borgia, grasped, heads must sometimes roll.Of course, I'm pretty sure Machiavelli would have said something about being competent in the first place and not making such an easily preventable blunder as rolling out an unsecured, untested, piece of crap website in the era of Google and Amazon, but I digress....and yes, if Obama had fired some people, maybe, maybe this would have blown over.....NAH....
However, I will compliment the authors on their summary, which was very well done:
The proper aim of a leader is to maintain his state (and, not incidentally, his job). Politics is an arena where following virtue often leads to the ruin of a state, whereas pursuing what appears to be vice results in security and well-being.Hopefully the Republicans, conservatives and Tea Party (not necessarily the same people, mind you) read up on our friend Niccolo and prepare to GOVERN should they be blessed with the political fortune of regaining the levers of power by 2017.
If they have 'nads of steel and are willing to rule with the same iron fist that Barry and Harry have shown...maybe there is hope to repeal Obamacare, Dodd-Frank, reign in the EPA, balance the budget, and generally undo the damage of the last eight years....
HISTORY, as always...shows the way........
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