Trump and Williamson are right to reject technocratic politics. Aristotle defined the political community as a community directed toward the highest good. Saint Augustine said that every political community was defined by its common loves.

In her loopy and very American style, Williamson understands this. Her closing statement called on Americans to “live up to our own mistakes, atone for our mistakes, make amends for our own mistakes, love each other, love our democracy, love future generations.”

By defining the political community in terms of shared loves, she has ended up closer to the classical Western political tradition than any of our Ivy-educated wonks have.

Despite what many wonks seem to assume, the American people aren’t cold Benthamites. They seek more than the maximization of utility. They are moved not by cold reason, but by visions of beauty or solidarity and calls to sacrifice.