Nick Machiavelli [using a pseudonym to protect his chances for continued re-election] has over twenty years of experience in elected office, and swears he cannot recall any time in his life since 1968 when so many people wanted to see changes in the socio-political order. That’s why he asks, and answers, his own question…

For a taste of his recent book, The Politician, read Chapter 2, “The Role of the Politician in the Liberal Democratic State” for free until 28th October 2020.

Everyone has an opinion on what’s wrong with everything, right? And many—without even waiting for the drop of a hat—will tell you what should be done. Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, yadda, yadda, yadda. Tired of listening already? Sure you are, because you actually know what needs to be done. Which is good, except it doesn’t count for beans unless you’re in a position to really do something about it. In a word, you need to get yourself E-L-E-C-T-E-D to some office where you, along with others you can convince of the rightness of your solution to the problem of [insert your favorite bugbear], can make that solution a reality. Good again, but that means you first have to get over the shame of wanting to be a politician. Relax, you can be a statesman later on.

Many forces move a given society forward, but in a liberal democracy (rightists, note the small “l”) it is the politicians—the elected representatives of the people—who decide in what direction a particular jurisdiction will move. By their votes, they set the rules and regulations, the laws that we are expected to abide by. So, if you want to be in on such decisions, if you really and truly want to make a difference, you need to first get your name on some ballot. The good news is that is all you have to do. No tests to pass, no interview committee to charm. It’s so easy, because (according to Robert Louis Stevenson) politics is the only profession for which no preparation is thought necessary.

If you are still with me, and want to know more, you need to get yourself a copy of my book, The Politician: A Companion to Niccolò Machiavelli’s The Prince.

Like The Prince, The Politician is, in part, a meditation on the realities of political life—as practiced in liberal democracies such as the UK, Canada, the USA, and so on. It is also a manual on how to achieve significant milestones in that life (getting elected in the first place, getting re-elected, and re-elected, and re-elected, and so on…), and a guide to dealing with those you come in contact with, whether as a candidate (voters, financial backers), or as a newly-elected politician (your political peers, superiors, and inferiors) or as an established office holder (bureaucrats, the media, lobbyists, and your staff).

Here are a few tips to remember along the way:

• First, it’s best to put off a dive into politics until any children you have are approaching adulthood. If you take the plunge before then, they will grow up feeling your career choice meant they were raised by a single-parent. And that feeling may persist for a long time.
• Second, be aware that everyone you meet once you are elected—with the exception of  other politicians—will think less of you when they discover your line of work. And the friends who knew you before will wonder what character flaw they missed noting previously. Keep your nose clean, for their sake.
• Third, recognize that any steep increase in your ability to charm others is entirely an illusion. Those laughing at that old joke of yours want something from you.

Marshall McLuhan once said a good teacher is one who saves his students time. I’ve followed politics closely my entire life, and been a holder of elected office for over two decades. Depending on the day and what it brings, it can involve dealing with the dumbest possible demands from entirely unreasonable constituents (and believe me, I’ve seen them all) or a genuinely noble calling (I’ve felt that too, and more than once!). In other words it’s tiresome at times, unbelievably uplifting at others. As the profession that exercises control over so many aspects of our life, as the one that makes the biggest difference in our lives, it deserves the best practitioners. And it is my earnest hope that The Politician—an insider’s unexpurgated look at all aspects of the political life—will persuade more than a few conflicted wannabes to stop wasting time pondering a political bid and take the plunge, and sooner rather than later. If that happens, I will consider myself a good teacher by McLuhan’s definition.

And let’s face it. We need a fresh crop of faces, people ready not just to fight for what they believe in, but to acknowledge that democracies move best when they move by consensus, by compromise. Government by gridlock is the absence of government and we have had too much of that in too many democracies in recent years.

P.S. A condition of my contract with the publisher was the addition to the manuscript of some sort of commentary on the current U. S. president. In the end it took the form of a brief postscript—“Concerning Donald Trump.” As I thought about what to write, I realized I would need to address an underlying question: Has Donald Trump made the type of politics I describe in The Politician a thing of the past? Can you guess what I concluded?