Fudge Naive or DE? (was "is there a reason?")

[jwcpgh]

No: HPFGUIDX 77354

>  Fran wrote:
> 
> > Everyone seems to think that Fudge is just naive but I think he 
is 
> a 
> > LV supporter if not a DE.
  
> "Kelly" <keltobin at y...> wrote:

> You have some very good points.  I think that there is a chance, 
> albeit slim, that Fudge may be a DE after all.  Personally, I think 
> he is representative of a bureaucratic politician who 
> prefers "business as usual" and will avoid "rocking the boat" at 
all 
> costs.  I also get the feeling that he is almost completely unable 
to 
> make decisions on his own.  Instead, it appears that he takes other 
> peoples solutions and acts on them.  <snip> 
> The most obvious examples of Fudge's incompetence are in OoTP.  He 
> blindly passes the "Educational Decree"s seemingly based on 
> Umbridge's recommendations.  His relationship with Malfoy seems to 
be 
> a surrogate for his lost relationship with Dumbledore (i.e. he 
needs 
> a person to help him make decisions).
<snip>

Laura:

I would again suggest the relevance of the "banality of evil" 
theory.  Most of us are neither outstandingly evil nor outstandingly 
good, it seems to me.  We do our best and try to make the right 
decisions, and we're vulnerable to lots of different kinds of 
pressures that can allow us to convince ourselves that "right" 
means "what's best for me".  That's how evil can take power-by 
putting people in a position to, as DD put it, choose between what is 
right and what is easy, and giving them reasons to choose the 
latter.  LV and those real-life villains with whom we are all too 
familiar don't need everyone to be a party member, as it were.  They 
just need people to go along and not fight back.  That's Fudge's 
sin.  It appears from a couple of his interactions with DD (for 
instance, at the end of GoF when he says "[Voldemort] can't be back, 
Dumbledore, he just can't be" (GoF p 709 US) that he knows in his 
heart what's going on, but to avoid controversy that might cost him 
his job, he covers it up.  Yes, Fudge has that stupid pure-blood 
thing, but that doesn't make him a DE, just a bigot.  

I'd also suggest that Fudge isn't looking to Lucius so much as a 
replacement for DD as for someone who will suck up to him and support 
his wretched decisions.  (An occasional pocketful of galleons never 
hurts either.)  Malfoy may be manipulating Fudge, which would be 
pretty easy to do, but I think Fudge likes the idea of this old-
family pure-blood bigshot toadying to him.