It didn’t have to be this way. In fact, none of the lamentable episodes I have described in these chapters—not even the technocratic longing for consensus—are built-in defects of expertise-in-government. Nations have found ways to have genius and daring at the same time; indeed, before the “ocean liner” experience of the Obama years taught me otherwise, I used to believe that these qualities went hand-in-hand. For example, the original New Deal, which set the standard for an administration of intellectuals, was creative and experimental above all else. Programs would be conjured out of nothing
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