Niccolo Machiavelli was a politician in early 1500s Italy, when politics was a blood sport that routinely involved murder, torture and military revolt. His amoral political strategies suggested that it is better for leaders to be feared than loved, and that they should avoid the influence of moral and religious teachings. But he is primarily remembered for promoting the idea that the end justifies the means: anything goes as long as the result is favorable.
Recent events suggest that Machiavelli would be right at home in our federal government. The lies told by Senate Leader Mitch McConnell to steal a Supreme Court seat for conservatives are one example, with repercussions that could last for decades. He refused to hold hearings on President Obama’s nominee in the spring of 2016, claiming a principle was involved: the American people should have a say through their votes in the upcoming elections. But that principle (never before cited in history) is now cast aside to achieve his favorable end: a Supreme Court that includes a young, right-wing ideologue. He lied to justify a legislative power-play that overturned centuries of established Constitutional process.
Another example is the inhumane policy recently used for illegal immigrants at our Southern border. Supposedly, the goal, or end, was “deterrence” that resulted in greater “border security.” However, a USA Today analysis showed that over 80 percent of the prosecutions related to family separations resulted in returning the adults to immigration authorities for immediate deportation: the same status they would have had if they were not separated from their children.
If the policy was never going to increase border security, what was its real intent? The entire group of hopeful, but illegal, immigrants have been branded as “animals” by President Trump and others in his administration. In defending the policy, a few of them have betrayed a “gleeful cruelty” in creating suffering for this group of dangerous outsiders.
Some other defenders have fallen for the “trumpeted” defense that the illegals forfeited their legal rights by breaking U.S. laws. However, their federal crime is classified as a misdemeanor, not a felony. Should committing a misdemeanor result in family separations, young children shipped hundreds or thousands of miles away, initial housing in chain link cages, and months of separation regardless of the outcome of court proceedings? Maybe in Machiavelli’s world, but not in mine.
However, I am not naïve enough to see recent Machiavellian actions as unique or surprising. American policies throughout history have built on Machiavelli’s foundation in achieving the ends of powerful, white Americans. The Trail of Tears essentially destroyed Native American dignity and culture. Slavery and Jim Crow laws restricted, demeaned and terrorized an entire ethnic group for more than 150 years.
In my lifetime, two examples have had disastrous results, costing millions of military and civilian deaths and trillions of dollars. The Gulf of Tonkin Resolution in 1964 used a planned confrontation, aggressive American actions, and false reports to allow the U.S. to employ its full military arsenal in the Vietnam War. Similarly, in February 2003, Colin Powell presented false and misleading evidence about “weapons of mass destruction” to justify our invasion of Iraq. Both used media manipulation and lies as a means to achieve the end favored by those in power: full-scale war.
Sadly, I have to agree with Donald Trump when he responded to criticism of Vladimir Putin’s involvement in murders by asking, “You think our country is so innocent?” But there is a big difference in knowing about crimes in the past and supporting the same approach today — in Russia or America.
I trace today’s acceptance and support for government-inflicted cruelty to the terrorist attack of 9/11 and our government’s response to it. America and Americans were ruthlessly attacked that day; thousands of innocent civilians were slaughtered. Americans were horrified and angry, as well as shocked and surprised that our country, which we imagined as secure, could be so spectacularly and successfully attacked.
Our government responded in the same, ruthless, amoral way. In 2002, legal counsel for the Bush administration wrote that the portions of the Geneva Conventions prohibiting torture, constructed after centuries of barbaric wars, were “obsolete” and “quaint.” Government-approved torture followed, as well as support for “black sites” in foreign countries that could use whatever torture they thought best, even if it ended in death. Prisoners in Guantanamo Bay have been held for years in solitary confinement without a hearing or legal counsel.
It’s natural to want to exact “an eye for an eye,” an approach that “leaves everyone blind,” according to Martin Luther King Jr. I believe (along with MLK Jr. and many others) that the advance of world civilization relies on New Testament Christian principles (also found in the Qur’an and other religions) rather than the retribution equation of the Old Testament (described in the Qur’an as well). I don’t want our country to use the same reasoning as ancient civilizations who endorsed slavery and torture.
As a candidate, Trump reinforced his contempt for humane treatment and judicial process when he contradicted the experts in the field by claiming that torture “works” and that even if it doesn’t, the victims “deserve what they get” because of “what they’re doing.” He recently suggested that border-crossers be processed with “no judges or court cases.” His preference would be to throw out judicial protections that have been a foundation of our country throughout our history.
The strategies of the Trump administration divide our country and take us back 500 years to the Italian city-states where brutal or callous actions and the naked lust for power were the norms. Our wonderfully advanced technological, economic and cultural society is in danger of succumbing to an ancient and amoral thought process that appears eerily similar to that of some modern enemies.
Allen Woods is a freelance writer and author living in Greenfield. He invites political discussion on his book’s website: www.theswordandscabbard.com or through contacting him at: awoods2846@gmail.com.