As for Machiavelli, if you can find me a successful politician who did not follow the lessons of Machiavelli, I’d be very impressed. He was not advocating what should or should not be done- he was simply discribing political reality as he saw it, and he saw it more clearly than anyone else, before or since.

With Machiavelli as a role model, I’m sure you have a bright future in politics ahead of you.

Obviously, this is morally out of the question today (as it should have been then) and no decent human being would even remotely consider going to such lengths in order to further the cause of space exploration.

So, no: obviously, there must be certain limits to what should be done to further the cause of space exploration. At the same time, the realities of political life require compromises to be made in order to achieve one’s objectives.

Now a hypothetical is in order:
Suppose a member of Congress is asked to vote a certain way on the question of abortion (and to avoid starting an off-the-subject debate, I’m not going to say what my position is). At the same time, he or she is trying to push through a major space exploration initiative. This Congressman is told that he will get the support he needs to push through his initiative, but in exchange he will have to vote a certain way on the abortion bill, namely, the opposite of what he himself feels is morally correct.

Machivelli would advise this person to get over his own personal feelings on the subjec of abortion, seeing as space exploration is his true object. Therefore, he must do something which he feels is evil if he is going to accomplish his objective.

Every such situation which arises will be unique and will always have to be judged separately. However, if people seriously want to start pushing space exploration in a major way, they may have to take actions that they might otherwise never consider.

Ths is true of any political issue, of course, but I have always felt that the main reason why space exploration has gone nowhere in thirty years was because there was never an organized political force with the strength and willpower to push it through the muck that is the American political system.

Machiavelli wrote that nearly five hundred years ago, but it remains as true in today’s politics as it was then. He didn’t see anything particularly moral or immoral about this- it was simply reality.

Space exploration has gone nowhere in the last thirty years largely because there was never a political reason to do more than maintain the status quo. There has never been a pro-space political force with either the strength or the willpower to push its agenda. Politicians listen to groups like the NRA, the AARP, the Christian Coalition and so forth precisely because those groups are willing to do what it takes to get politicians to support their points of view.

Although people are often fond of making these sorts of anything goes type statements, I don’t think you really mean this. Certainly you would recognize *some* limits on what is allowable in pursuit of reinvigorating the space program, would you not?

One detyail often being overlooked: in the mess that was the Republican-controlled redistricting of the Texas congressional districts, House Majority Leader Tom Delay’s district now includes the Johnson Space Center. This means that the most powerful member of the House of Representatives has a vested interest in an expanded space program. While I am far from a fan of Delay, this cannot help but be a good thing for NASA.

On another note, while I applaud Bush’s space plan as at least a step forward, I will not vote for him in 2004. As important as space is to me, I am not a single issue voter. Bush is not a deep man, and he does not seem to have a curiosity about anything. He may be honorable and decent, but that’s not enough. His cadre of deep thinkers is also responsible for fouling up our nation’s international reputation. I want something more in my President, and so far no one fits the bill (and no one has, actually, since I started voting in 1988).

Besides, Bush’s space plan will almost certainly fail anyway. I remind readers that the right step (in my opinion, of course) is a space economic development plan.