Terror

There was a report out last week that Tom Ridge, who was Homeland Security chief till recently, was "periodically" instructed by the White House to raise the threat level even when the Department of Homeland Security didn't see the need. Here's one reference to that tidbit of news:
http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2005-05-10-ridge-alerts_x.htm
Probably to a lot of Americans that doesn't seem like anything unusual. The White House thinks the terror alert should be sounded so it notifies the agency which sounds that alert. But somewhere back in the dark recesses of my memory I seem to recall that the blame for seemingly trivial usage of the Homeland Security's terror alert level was always placed squarely in the lap of Tom Ridge, not the White House. Does anyone else recall getting that same impression? Take for instance the terror alert issued right after the 2004 Democratic convention in Boston. I seem to recall that nobody really knew why that alert was called or who called it but for public relations, the blame was given to Homeland Security.
So why would it be that the White House is the actual source of the alerts?
I am attempting to read The Prince by Niccolo Machiavelli, a political manual for national rulers - dictators, actually, not republican rulers. I have heard that this book is Karl Rove's political reference book. It instructs dictators on how to acquire and maintain power over their nations. One of the recommendations is to establish among the people a sense of terror. I am reminded when reading this book of what little I have studied of domestic abuse and codependency. The abuser terrorizes through violence or abusive and demeaning language. Rather than escaping, the abused person relies on the abuser to control the abuse, to contain the terror. In so doing, the abused person becomes codependent on the abuser. Since it is generally the objective of the abuser to use the abused person to provide some sort of support, maybe food and shelter, maybe more, the abused person also becomes an enabler, a person who makes the continuing abuse possible. Machiavelli's approach of terrorizing the population in order to maintain control of the nation's population seems to be a perfect example.
Maybe that's why in the past couple of years I have felt that our nation is being run by abusers. Maybe that's why everyone lives in fear. Maybe that's why two guys in a tiny Cessna terrorized Washington DC the other day without even trying. Maybe all of Washington is living in terror. And maybe, just maybe, that's the way it's meant to be now with Karl Rove masterminding our political philosophy.