The Orwellian nightmare for policy wonks is coming

[Commentary] I’m not going to sugarcoat this: For policy experts, the next four years of the Trump Administration will be a waking nightmare. This is for two reasons. The first is that President-elect Donald Trump’s team has few if any policy wonks. The second is that this puts the average policy wonk in a no-win situation.

But, what if the Trump Administration turns out to be pretty good at governing? Trump has spent the past year and a half defying most political experts and winning the greatest natural experiment in American political history. What if he and his team prove to be better at governing than wonks expect him to be? What if it turns out that the country is already trending in a very positive direction and even the federal government can’t screw that up? Or what if disruption by inexperienced policy principals is just what the bureaucracy needs?

[Daniel W. Drezner is a professor of international politics at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University]