Years before becoming senior editor of National Review, James Burnham wrote a book titled The Machiavellians (1943).  Consistent with Machiavelli, the work studies not how things should be, but how they really are: Burnham reduced all political relationships to power.  Governments — without exception — exert power against those whom they rule.  Seeming humanitarian words disguise the real intent of the rulers.  Only by resisting can the people exert power against the government.  This must be done in order to protect freedom.

The work begins by describing Burnham's leading Machiavellian, Franklin Delano Roosevelt.  Before becoming president, FDR preached limited government.  The 1932 Democratic Party's Platform demanded cuts in spending and a balanced budget.  Burnham calls these words the "formal" meaning.  They are deceptive.  In reality FDR expanded the power of government.  His words masked his true intentions.

Any benevolence that comes from the rulers is merely coincidental.  The seeming altruism of despots should never be taken literally.  The ruler only pays lip service to established laws like constitutions.  Applied to current times, California governor Gavin Newsom states: "Our state, our nation, and our world are facing a challenge unprecedented in modern times.  The COVID-19 pandemic compels us all to find new ways of coming together[.]"  On the surface, this makes sense.  These dire times call for a new amount of executive power, Newsom continued.  He insisted that his measures are consistent with California's constitution.

Burnham would argue that these are just formal words.  He maintained that when rulers speak, they inevitably deceive and hide: "In the hands of the powerful and their spokesman, however, used by the demagogues ... this method is well-designed ... to deceive us, and to lead us by easy routes to the sacrifice of our or own interests in the service of the mighty."  Too often, we get deluded by words.  Examining the action of rulers, not their rhetoric, reveals their true motivations.

Following Newsom's declaration of emergency, some normal human activities were at best discouraged and at worst considered a punishable offense.  Discouraged activities included traveling from one side of town to another to visit a friend.  Punishable activities include walking on the beach during the middle of the day.  Businesses have been shuttered, elections have been moved to vote by mail, and court proceedings have been altered.  Most remarkable of all, protests against the governor were effectively banned on April 22.  As Burnham predicted, constitutions and established laws were flouted, all in the name of the people.

Burnham knew that governments always stress the benevolent side of their oppression.  The stated (formal) reason given by Newsom for his policies was to protect people from COVID-19.  The Machiavellians know better.  They know that the powerful elite have no humanitarian impulses.  Burnham writes, "The Machiavellians present the complete record: the primary object in practice, of all rulers is to serve their own interest, to maintain their own power and privilege.  There are no exceptions."

Burnham felt obliged to study power and its relationship with contemporary democracy.  Democracy has different meanings for different people.  Most people associate democracy with self-government, but Burnham argued that self-government is impossible.  True democracy can't exist. The elite always pull the levers of government.

Given the existence of the elite ruling class and their inevitable demand for power, the closest we can come to democracy (self-government) is when people resist the government by exercising liberty.  Using this definition, democracy becomes more tangible.  Democracy and liberty thrive when people use force against their government.  Struggle leads to freedom.

More practically (and Machiavellians are always practical), struggle takes the form of public opposition.  It's the only effective check against the ruling elite.  Either people exert force against the government or the system becomes totalitarian because the government employs all power.  The best way for the people to exert power (democracy) is to fight the rulers.  If the people aren't exerting force against the government, then it can be assumed that the government is exerting force against the people.  Only power restrains power, Burnham declared.

Those fighting government may be deemed extremists or even traitors.  But it's their extremism that preserves freedom.  Examples abound.  Extremist black Republicans during the Civil War exerted force against Lincoln, enabling the North to win the Civil War.  During WWI, more oppositional force in England certainly would have led the English to adopt the tank sooner, thereby saving lives.  Extremism in defense of liberty is not a bad thing.

Fortunately, an opposition group can exert more power than its apparent strength.  Even a few thousand resisters can thwart the invariable power-grab by government.  Power is not directly proportional to the number of people exerting it.

Those currently resisting government power recognize the raging power struggle in society and consequently resist the application of power against them.  Since California is a left-wing state, it's left-wing governor can most easily exercise power against the people without opposition.  Newsom's base naïvely trusts the formal meaning of his use of power.  But bastions of conservatism do exist within the liberal haven.  The power exerted against them is stronger, so they resist more than anyone else.  This resistance will eventually lead Newsom liberalize the system.

David Byrne earned his Ph.D. in intellectual history from Claremont Graduate University.  He is the author of Ronald Reagan: An Intellectual Biography.  His Twitter account is here.