George W. Bush As Depicted In Machiavelli's The Prince

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According to Machiavelli, being praised mustn’t concern a prince who wishes to continue ruling. In the book The Prince, Machiavelli noted that “A man who wishes to make a vocation of being good at all times will come to ruin among so many who are not good”(40). A successful prince has two kinds of traits- praiseworthy and despicable, the latter of the two must not cause him hatred. The prince must present himself as an honest man, while using his vices. A good example of a modern day Machiavellian prince is America’s 43rd president, George W Bush, from the moment that Bush decided to run for President, his staff has fabricated an image of George W as a successful CEO, an avid Christian, effective governor, and all-around nice guy. These traits somewhat relate to a Machiavellian prince because it is a fabricated image that is shown first. Bush played to these themes when he accepted the Republican nomination, representing himself as a “uniter” not a divider, setting out his goals in a business-like manner, and promising to lead in an era of responsibility to uphold the honor and dignity of the office to…show more content…
One is to score him firmly as America’s chief executive. The other is typical view of the president only as a politician. From the Machiavellian perspective, Bush’s primary goal was to increase his power, rather than to confront America’s problems – to maintain the appearance of leadership while exhorting his position. Since taking office George W has been confronted with many new tests, including an unsure economy and global climate change. On the other hand, George W was very scrupulous as a politician. He was elected to two terms and kept his primary campaign promises: he’s cut taxes, brought his version of accountability to elementary education, massively increased funding to the military, and shrunken rights. His core voters strongly aggrandize him, and Republicans control
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