Saturday, December 10, 2005

Rice and the Real Deal

I saw that ad again...yes, the one suggesting that Condoleezza Rice run for president.

Obviously Secretary Rice is not one of my favorite political figures, and the idea of her as president leads me to reconsider my citizenship. What tickled me is that she is hailed as being "Machiavellian" and promoting the "new realism." Someone did not do their homework. Realism focuses on promoting power of the state; the citizens' individual rights are not factored into the equation. Machiavelli's timeless handbook on classical realism, The Prince, does not even take state matters into consideration; the primary goal is to preserve the power of the ruler, or prince, from all challenges foreign and domestic - the prince is the state. These beliefs go against the concepts presented by our forefathers. We are children of the Enlightenment, which advocated the liberal ideas of theorists such as Locke and Rousseau, therefore a realist in the Oval Office is essentially un-American.

Bottom line: the only time Rice should be seen in the White House again is as a side dish.

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