Larry Langford’s Greatest Hits - Birmingham Weekly

Thirty years in the taking

By: Kyle Whitmire

Three years ago, then-Jefferson County Commission President Larry Langford led a reading group at the Summit Barnes & Noble. It was a monthly event, organized by the store, at which local celebrities discussed their favorite books. In most cases, the celebrity picks were easy-reading pop-culture pap — Who Moved My Cheese? or the latest Oprah favorite. But not Langford’s choices. He chose two books, each of which seemed oddly indicative of his character, his career, his persona, his politics.

Langford’s first book was The Screwtape Letters by C. S. Lewis. A moralizing satire, the book takes the form of correspondence between a senior demon in hell, Screwtape, and his nephew, Wormwood, a devil-in-training who’s having trouble corrupting a young Christian. Screwtape instructs his nephew on the gradualism of sin and its usefulness in spoiling a good soul.

Langford’s second selection was The Prince by Niccolo Machiavelli. It is at once one of the more important works in Western political thought and also a handbook for how to be a dictator. In the last 400 years, its author’s name has been twisted into an adjective: Machiavellian, meaning ruthless, ambitious and without conscience. The most quoted line: “It is better to be feared than loved.”

It was as though, for a moment, he dropped the stage act, just long enough to let us know he was smarter and more complex than he had otherwise let on. But those who had been paying attention to his political career did not need the reminder [..more..]