Insiders all know what these platitudes mean: Washington’s political class has reoccupied its rightful place on top. The swamp is back, baby. The Washington Post rather gave the game away this week when it published a gushing report under the headline: ‘Washington’s aristocracy hopes a Biden presidency will make schmoozing great again.’ The online editors promptly changed ‘aristocracy’ to ‘establishment’, but the slip was revealing. Democratic blue-bloods are in the ascendancy. Kerry and Blinken are about as elite as Americans get. Kerry, who ran as the Democratic candidate for president in 2004, is a billionaire through his marriage into the Heinz fortune. Blinken is a preppy type who grew up on the Upper East Side of Manhattan and in Paris. He spent his time away from politics being a global affairs analyst for CNN, as well as making a fortune in private equity and defence lobbying. After 2016, he and some other former ‘nat sec’ officials set up WestExec, a lobby shop which advised shadowy foreign groups on tech and defence. With considerable foresight, Blinken even registered an ‘exceptional contingency’ clause on the lease of the office property. This meant the contract could be terminated without penalty in the event that the Democratic candidate won the presidency in 2020. Hey presto! Trump, the real-estate tycoon, must be secretly impressed.