There was another side to the father of “political realism” as Harvey Mansfield – by far the weightiest and most pertinent of the conservatives who do serious political philosophy – demonstrates in an important new essay just published by The New Criterion and discussed in this conversation. Machiavelli as the cynical and amoral advisor on how to gain and – far more difficult – HOLD power is, of course, found in The Prince. But as author of the Discourses on the First Ten Books of Titus Livy, his true colors as a moralist  show through vividly. So argues Mansfield, the reigning intellectual in the Harvard Department of Government. Mansfield goes on in our conversation to examine how Mach the Moralist can assist those in power who aspire to do respectful good for the states or nations that they aspire to ”serve.”