Christ on a cracker thank you. Everyone else is getting bent out of shape because I was unaware the definition changed meanings and pointed out my understanding stems from actions almost 200 years ago.

You are the only one that explained the word changed meanings, so thank you. I'm not sure why that was so hard for everyone else.

Now my only retort is that Bismark wasn't really big because of war. The man was in power for 3 wars, one of which was when the French attacked 'Germany' (so he didn't start it technically). Most of what I've read about his "Real Politik" was political, while everything else I've seen posted is about the topic is war related.

Now I'm not here to argue that the word isn't related to war, but if the term starts with Bismark but means declaring wars then it's actually about a small part of what he actually did. Which while important to point out, just makes me wrong. Unfortunately Wikipedia doesn't bring up war either, it brings up "politics or diplomacy based primarily on considerations of given circumstances and factors, rather than explicit ideological notions". None of which is focused on war.

Here's a good bit as well, "The term Realpolitik is sometimes used pejoratively to imply politics that are perceived as coercive, amoral, or Machiavellian." So once again, no war is involved and infact a good SocDem candidate could well be considered to be using Real Politik if they make sweeping changes without starting yet another war. Now I'm fairly new here and not a SocDem, but we like SocDem's here right?