By JACKIE TAYLOR | July 24, 2024

Machiavellian Theory

I was a junior at Colorado State University studying journalism when I was forced to take Humanities from a professor who pronounced “human” like “uman” with no h. I can’t tell you how many times I really wished to say “human” to her, but that would have been rude; with that I had nightmares for years after graduating that I missed a test in her class.

But, to her credit, we did read one book that has stuck with me for 40-plus years, The Prince, written by Niccolo Machiavelli; the same man who made the line “the ends justify the means” famous.

History.com states, “According to Machiavelli, the ends always justify the means—no matter how cruel, calculating or immoral those means might be. Tony Soprano and Shakespeare’s Macbeth may be well-known Machiavellian characters, but the man whose name inspired the term, Niccolo Machiavelli, didn’t operate by his own cynical rule book. Rather, when Machiavelli wrote The Prince, his shrewd guidelines to power in the 16th century, he was an exiled statesman angling for a post in the Florentine government. It was his hope that a strong sovereign, as outlined in his writing, could return Florence to its former glory.”

“Unlike the noble princes portrayed in fairy tales, a successful ruler of a principality, as described in Machiavelli’s writings, is brutal, calculating and, when necessary, utterly immoral.”

What brings me to Machiavelli is our nation’s recent political upheaval caused by the smoke and mirror show keeping President Joe Biden’s dementia from blowing up in public – until recently. Suddenly, the media is feigning disbelief that Biden has dementia – like it happened over the weekend without them knowing it.

Senators Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Shumar, Rep. Hakeem Jefferies, former President Barack Obama each beat a path to Biden’s door to tell him he was going to lose the election for the Democrats and had to pull from the 2024 Presidential race. Well, I don’t know what they promised or threatened Biden with, but he pulled Sunday and gave his full endorsement to Vice President Kamala Harris.

Well, needless to say, the meme circuit has been on full-steroidal assault and pretty entertaining. “Cackler-in-Chief,” etc. were some of the specials; what was interesting to hear from some pundits was that giving Harris Biden’s endorsement was a “giant [screw you]” to those who forced Biden out.

Harris has low poll numbers but those who might like the job don’t necessarily want to jump in with 100 days or so before the election.

One step-up Harris might have is with the sudden outcry that if Biden isn’t healthy enough to run for the 2024 election, then he’s not healthy enough for the next five months in office. If he is forced to resign immediately, that puts Harris in the president’s seat as an incumbent come November – and, a certain leg up on the office.

As I listened to several news outlets going through the scenarios of the Dems predicament, the sentence, “the end justifies the means” kept rolling through my head. Political power was at the expense of Biden, the voters who put Biden in office and political donors who supported the president.

The end, to keep power through the Presidential seat, is more important than any person, group of people or ideal of election integrity. 

The only thing that is positive through all of the nasty maneuverings that have occurred with Donald Trump and now Joe Biden is that the smoke has blown away and the mirror is broken giving a glimpse into a giant cover up designed to keep the American people in the dark.

Heaven help us, it’s going to be a rough 100 days.