Commentary Put yourself in the mind of a smart, power-hungry politician obsessed with winning, someone with no moral compass. He is calmly reviewing the events of the past two years, looking for useful lessons on how to advance his or her career and causes in the future. What nuggets of insight would such a person take away? That you can manipulate people by playing on their fears, something copiously evident since 2020, is nothing new. That has been a staple of political writing for centuries, exemplified by Machiavelli’s contention that when faced with the choice between being feared and being loved, the wise ruler should always choose fear. The “dread of punishment,” he believed, is a constant, while the bond of love will be broken at the drop of a hat if some advantage can be gained by doing so. Fear, then, is the more constant and reliable human motivator, …