What is being brought back, we are told, is the concept of ‘expertise’ itself. Biden’s return to normalcy will be a re-empowerment of America’s bureaucratic class, so rudely ignored and pushed aside during the four-year time of troubles.
Nowhere is this narrative more powerful than in foreign policy. The Trump administration ‘gutted’ the State Department; that is, it paid scant deference to the priestly class that claims a special right to set America’s agenda vis-à-vis the rest of Earth. Now, the Biden administration has reaffirmed the old dogmas and the priesthood is back. Americans can expect many things from them. They can expect professionalism. They can expect erudition. They can expect consistency. And above all, they can expect disaster.
