The role of experts in a democratic republic like our own is to inform elected officials of the facts, so that these officials can make informed political judgment, balancing the knowledge from subject-matter experts with the facts and circumstances of the people themselves — their values, prejudices, habits, and way of life.
Covid-19 presented a crisis that politicians could not fully control or defeat, but for which they could be blamed. One method politicians have used to avoid taking responsibility for unpleasant decisions — or potentially difficult choices — has been to partly obscure their role in making them, by deferring to experts like Dr. Fauci or translating guidance from the CDC into regulation with no amendment. Fauci has played up his wisdom and his influence, politically knifed his enemies, and seems to genuinely enjoy his central role in recent events. Thus, if you were angry, your anger was directed at people who aren’t elected, who may, like Dr. Fauci, have been appointed by a president whose term in office ended before your birth.
A people with a democratic spirit will, under the governance of technocrats, tend to respond in one of two ways, and both have been common in the pandemic. The first is cowlike obedience — hoping to escape the impositions on their life through fulsome but temporary cooperation. The other response is something more like regicidal rebellion — a false king has been raised up, and the small d-democratic heart thrills at the idea of tearing the pretender down from his throne.
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