President Machiavelli Bush

George W. Bush, our current President, must keep a copy of Machiavelli’s most celebrated work, “The Prince “(1513), on his desk in the Oval Office. In my opinion, Bush and his administration’s actions mimic Machiavelli’s advice to the Prince on the tactics that he should use to stay in power. I am going to discuss how President Bush uses Machiavellian principles. My first example is of Bush’s “War on Terror”. In 2001, the President stated that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction and Saddam was going to use them against the U.S. and other nations even though he did not have concrete proof . He also said Iraq had ties to Al Quaida and this was a threat to our security and the security
This act created a lot of fear in the American public. Machiavelli felt it was better to be feared than loved. But, not to a point of being hated. The Bush administration used the reasoning that the Patriot Act protected American’s, the perceived “good cause” of the act, so hatred would not prevail. It actually created more fear of terrorism for Americans and it also created a fear that our civil rights were being abused, not to mention a lot of the provisions were unconstitutional. I believe that this administration needed to be feared. I have just touched a few of the things that I feel that brings a commonality between Machiavelli and Bush. The deception of Bush’s “War on Terror”, his appearance of the virtue of his religious faith, and being feared have made Bush, in my opinion, a disciple of Machiavelli. After researching this subject, I have titled my paper, “President Machiavelli Bush”.

Works Cited

Machiavelli, Niccolo. “The Qualities of the Prince”. World of Ideas.
Editor, Lee Jacobson. Seventh Edition. Boston: Bedford/St. Martins, 2006. 247-260.

Urban, Hugh. “Religion and Secrecy in the Bush Administration: The Gentleman, The Prince, and Simulacrum”. <http://www.msu.edu/volumeVII/secrecy.htm#_ednref130>.

“George W. Bush”. Wikipedia. Wikipedia