Connecticut Commentary: Red Notes from a Blue State

Machiavelli Q: You may be interested to know that your name has survived into the 21 st century more or less as a curse word used by democrats the world over. To say some clever political maneuver is “Machiavellian” is to say it is, in some disreputable sense, an evasion of the democratic ideal. M: And the democratic ideal would be what? Q: Rule by the people, indirectly of course. Here in the United States, the people rule through their elected representatives. M: You’ve just described a republic, not a democracy which, even the ancients knew, was not possible in large states. Athens was a democracy, Sparta an aristocratic oligarchy that survived on the strength of the institution of slavery. Both were city-states. The Florentine republic, my home turf, dates from 1115. The Peloponnesian Wars between Sparta and Athens, one intensely militaristic, the other reliant on diplomacy and trade, lasted, on and off, for about four decades, and Sparta won a temporary victory because it a...

"… these people keep saying there's got to be other ways to do it. I'm calling their bluff" – Governor Dannel Malloy, announcing his plan for a pre-special session, closed door meeting. “These people” are, of course, minority Republicans in the General Assembly who have been consistently shooed out of room by Mr. Malloy during budget negotiations. The above quote suggests that Mr. Malloy, beset by continuing deficits, is now prepared to negotiate in good faith with side-bar Republicans. Mr. Malloy clearly is signaling that the “greater good” should take precedence over the lesser good sometimes supported by majority Democrats whose political livelihood depends upon securing the active intervention of special interests.

M en are so simple and so much inclined to obey immediate needs that a deceiver will never lack victims for his deceptions -- Niccolò Machiavelli     A bit of advice for Democrats in Connecticut: First of all, stop worrying. You outnumber opposition Republicans by a margin of two to one, and there is no viable third party on the horizon, just a few Tea Party groups vowing to end the public careers of middle-of-the-road Republicans.