# Mayberry Machiavelli

> English word · Noun

## Definitions
1. A person who furthers a cause by "reducing every issue to its simplest, black-and-white terms for public consumption", i.e., denying nuance by presenting stark but fallacious alternatives.

## Etymology
Coined by John J. DiIulio, Jr., who ran President George W. Bush's Faith-based Initiative. See Machiavelli. Mayberry was the name of a small rural town in The Andy Griffith Show and Mayberry R.F.D., US TV shows that ran from 1960 to 1971.

## Source
Compiled from Wiktionary via kaikki.org (CC BY-SA). Data vintage: 2026-05-06.
Canonical page: https://plainspell.com/en/word/mayberry-machiavelli