(Steve Donahue) – Niccolò Machiavelli (3 May 1469 – 21 June 1527) was an Italian historian, politician, diplomat, philosopher, humanist and writer based in Florence during the Renaissance. He was for many years an official in the Florentine Republic with responsibilities in diplomatic and military affairs. He was a founder of modern political science, and more specifically political ethics. He also wrote comedies, carnival songs, and poetry.
His personal correspondence is renowned in the Italian language. He was Secretary to the Second Chancery of the Republic of Florence from 1498 to 1512, when the Medici were out of power. He wrote his masterpiece, The Prince, after the Medici had recovered power and he no longer held a position of responsibility in Florence (Circa 1513).
Oddly enough, we find, in Chapter 3 of Machiavelli’s The Prince, the following observation (which is uncannily similar to what just happened with the Clark County Republican Party):
“The Prince who establishes himself in a Province whose laws and language differ from those of his own people, ought also to make himself the head and protector of his feebler neighbors, and endeavor to weaken the stronger, and must see that by no accident shall any other stranger as powerful as himself find an entrance there.
For it will always happen that some such person will be called-in by those of the Province who are discontented either through ambition or fear; as we see of the old Romans brought into Greece by the Aetolians, and in every other country that they entered, invited there by its inhabitants. And the usual course of things is that as soon as a formidable stranger enters a Province, all the weaker powers side with him, moved thereto by the ill-will they bear towards him who has hitherto kept them in subjection. So that in respect of these lesser powers, no trouble is needed to gain them over, for at once, together, and of their own accord, they throw-in their lot with the government of the stranger.
The new Prince, therefore, has only to see that they do not increase too much in strength, and with his own forces, aided by their good will, can easily subdue any who are powerful, so as to remain supreme in the Province. He who does not manage this matter well, will soon lose whatever he has gained, and while he retains it will find in it endless troubles and annoyances.”
The above words of advice from Niccolò Machiavelli , quoted verbatim from his book written 500 years ago, when interpreted to fit the recent debacle at the CCRP, tells the whole story of what can be termed “The CCRP Ron Pauler’s Caper”.
The callow Ron Paul group took over the CCRP in the last year and a half. They toppled the king (Dave Gibbs). Then they utterly failed by neglect and arrogance “to make themselves protectors of their feebler neighbors” (the rank and file Republicans that remained involved with the CCRP). In so doing they opened the door for a stranger, (a California congressman’s son) who, over a six month period, became “as powerful as [their leader]” and was able to “find an entrance” at the CCRP. Then, “all the weaker powers” (the Cathie Lynn Gisis, the Commanders and other so-called Tea Partiers) “moved by their ill-will” toward the Paulers ‘for keeping them in subjection’ were quickly won over to ‘the powerful stranger by their own accord.’
Because the Ron Paulers and their leader did not see to it that the people they previously defeated “did not increase too much in strength” and because they never attempted to use good will or other politically smart maneuvers to include those they had conquered with gestures of recognition or other praises for their contributions, they failed to manage their authority properly and thus soon lost whatever they had gained during their short tenure and were plagued with “endless troubles and annoyances” during their short reign.
The key lesson to be learned here is that those who refuse to learn from the lessons of history are doomed to repeat them!
(Mr. Donahue is a member of the Nevada Republican Party Executive Committee)
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