{"id":74895,"date":"2024-07-11T06:00:53","date_gmt":"2024-07-11T10:00:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/?p=74895"},"modified":"2024-07-11T07:10:18","modified_gmt":"2024-07-11T11:10:18","slug":"technocratic-government","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2024\/07\/technocratic-government\/","title":{"rendered":"Technocratic Government"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

<\/a><\/p>\n

The most important question about the evident incapacity of President Biden is not how this will affect the election but who is running the country?\u00a0 Evidently, members of his staff.\u00a0 These unelected professionals would seem to exemplify a specific approach to government that has been emerging on many fronts:\u00a0 technocracy<\/em>, government by experts.<\/p>\n

There have long been complaints that a \u201ccocoon\u201d has been built around the president, preventing not only reporters but lower-level White House aides from interacting with him.\u00a0 Are those unelected staff members who constitute the cocoon making decisions, setting policy, and doing the other tasks of the presidency?\u00a0 This is from Axios<\/a>, not a conservative site but a reliably left-leaning. pro-Democratic webzine (my bolds):<\/p>\n

Some Biden aides believe those closest to the president have created a cocoon around him that initially seemed earnestly protective, but now appears potentially deceptive in the debate\u2019s aftermath.<\/p>\n

• \n\n\nThey particularly focus on Deputy Chief of Staff Annie Tomasini, the first lady\u2019s top adviser Anthony Bernal, and longtime aide Ashley Williams, who joined the deputy chief of staff\u2019s office when Tomasini ascended to the role earlier this year.<\/li>\nThose close aides have many duties. But officials recall instances of them helping Biden make up for mental lapses, including prompting him to remember people he has known for a long time.<\/li>\nSuch moments could be dismissed as normal lapses. But many Biden aides now wonder whether they were signs of something deeper.<\/strong><\/li>\nOne former Biden aide told Axios: \u201cAnnie, Ashley and Anthony create a protective bubble around POTUS. He\u2019s staffed so closely that he\u2019s lost all independence.<\/strong> POTUS relies on staff to nudge him with reminders of who he\u2019s meeting, including former staffers and advisers who Biden should easily remember without a reminder from Annie.\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

  Evidence is emerging that the \u201cbubble\u201d is doing more than covering for the president\u2019s gaffes and senior moments.\u00a0 A White House aide has leaked greater concerns to another left-leaning news site, Semafor<\/em>, which published under the by-line of editor Ben Smith an article entitled A \u2018scared\u2019 Biden aide sounds an alarm<\/a>.\u00a0 An excerpt:<\/p>\n

  "\n

  It\u2019s unclear even to some inside the West Wing policy process which policy issues reach the president, and how. Major decisions go into an opaque circle that includes White House chief of staff, Jeff Zients (who talks to the president regularly) and return concluded. . . .<\/div>\n

  <\/div>\n

  This pattern had already been a topic of discussion, and curiosity, among the high-powered aides who work in and around the White House. The rituals of paperflow are technical, but they say they\u2019re surprised by the lack of briefings to the president, and of readouts from consultations with the president and worry about the possibility of decisions \u201cbeing made without him.\u201d. . .<\/div>\n

  \n***
  ** ***\u201cI\u2019m super proud of the policies,\u201d the person said. \u201cI\u2019m talking to you because I\u2019m incredibly upset and scared for the country and I would like to do what I can.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n

  Actually, government by unelected professionals is a genuine option to democracy<\/em>.\u00a0 That term means government by the people.\u00a0 Other systems include aristocracy<\/em>, government by \u201cthe best\u201d; plutocracy<\/em>, government by the wealthy; and autocracy<\/em>, government by a single \u201cself.\u201d\u00a0 Then there is technocracy<\/em><\/a>, government by \u201cexperts.\u201d<\/p>\n

  In an article last month on UK politics<\/a> in the progressive British publication New Statesman<\/em>, John Gray gives a good explanation:<\/p>\n

  "

  Rule by technocrats means bypassing politics by outsourcing key decisions to professional bodies that claim expert knowledge. Their superior sapience is often ideology clothed in pseudo-science they picked up at university a generation ago, and their recommendations a radical political programme disguised as pragmatic policymaking. Technocracy represents itself as delivering what everyone wants, but at bottom it is the imposition of values much of the population does not share. A backlash was inevitable.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

  The backlash Gray refers to is what he predicted would be a rout of the increasingly technocratic Conservative Party in the UK, a prediction that came true last week<\/a>.<\/p>\n

  But there are also marks of technocratic government here in the United States.\u00a0 Consider our government\u2019s across-the-board response to COVID, constantly deferring to \u201cthe experts,\u201d many of whose mandates have now been discredited<\/a>; the uncritical adoption in the medical, educational, and government establishments of\u00a0 transgender ideology, despite the scientific evidence against it; ambitious anti-climate change initiatives imposed even when their benefits do not seem to outweigh the hardships they impose on the public.<\/p>\n

  Now that America\u2019s progressive movement as manifested in the Democratic Party has replaced its traditional working class base with elite, highly-educated professionals, it is little wonder that an often dominant strain of American politics is inclined towards technocracy.\u00a0 These progressives consider themselves to be a class of experts who are entitled to set the policies for the unenlightened masses to follow.<\/p>\n

  As evidence for this mindset, notice the outrage on the part of so many Democrats at the Supreme Court\u2019s recent overturning of the Chevron deference<\/a> requiring courts to defer to the \u201cexperts\u201d in government agencies in interpreting, applying, and adjudicating open-ended regulatory laws.\u00a0 \u201cThe reversal,\u201d lamented one critic, \u201cmeans the opinions of scientists and technical experts at US federal agencies will no longer reign supreme when it comes to interpreting legal ambiguities.\u201d\u00a0 Exactly.\u00a0 But the critic assumes that they should<\/em> \u201creign supreme.\u201d<\/p>\n

  This is technocracy, but not democracy, something the Democratic<\/em> Party claims to champion against its threats.\u00a0 Politics in a democracy secures the consent of the governed, something technocratic governments typically are not interested in, since they believe they know better.<\/p>\n

  \u00a0<\/p>\n

  Photo:\u00a0 \u201cExperts Only:\u00a0 As Opposed to Pirates<\/a>,\u201d by Ross Mayfield via Flickr,\u00a0 CC by NC 2.0<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  The most important question about the evident incapacity of President Biden is not how this will affect the election but who is running the country?\u00a0 Evidently, members of his staff.\u00a0 These unelected professionals would seem to exemplify a specific approach to government that has been emerging on many fronts:\u00a0 technocracy, government by experts.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1281,"featured_media":75135,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19,36],"tags":[655,656,14895,14898,10916],"class_list":["post-74895","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-government","category-politics","tag-democracy","tag-democratic-party","tag-president-bidens-incapacity","tag-progressive-elite","tag-technocracy"],"yoast_head":"\nTechnocratic Government<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The most important question about the 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