SHANE​ WARREN

Let’s start with a confession that will either make you nod or make you want to throw your phone into the sea: I’m tired of living in an era where being loudly wrong is treated like a personality, and being thoughtfully right is treated like a provocation.

Trump wasn’t a candidate despite his cruelty. He was a candidate because of it. Not because everyone who voted for him is cruel. That’s lazy thinking and it’s not what I believe. But because he gave a certain kind of person, along with a certain kind of impulse, public permission.

These instruments do not “prove” that crowns cause prosperity, freedom, or happiness. They do support a humbler claim: where a democracy already takes law and competence seriously, an apolitical head of state helps it stay serious in bad weather.

Every few years, a chorus emerges: “What if we ran government like a business?” The logic feels neat and tidy. CEOs cut costs, strike deals, and whip teams into shape. Surely, they could do the same with a nation-state.