The problem with having a politically neutral civil service do a lot of the work is that they would be guided by science and logical policy imperatives. If you are a conservative and trying to prove that the state can't do most jobs as well as "the markets" then the last thing you want is competent civil servants on the job. They might try to regulate the private sector, for one thing.

The genius of the conservative political project s that they have persuaded many of the hoi polloi that the state is their enemy rather than their friend, and that their true friends are billionaire business owners who have the best interests of everyone at heart. Even superheroes are in reality rich people trying to help the poor saddled with an incompetent police service and state. Sadly, if you recruit, pay, and train them badly enough, the police service really is incompetent.

And of course if the hoi polloi really want to be rich and emulate the billionaires, its easy to persuade them that they too could make it rich if they are smart and hard working enough, even if most wealth is actually inherited. The state, meanwhile, is populated by failed businessmen and ne'er do wells with their fingers in the till doing a jobs worth for the lobbying firms. Who would want to aspire to emulate that?

The progressive project is about the common good - a nebulous concept sometimes hard to define. The conservative project, on the other hand is about unabashed and unashamed self promotion, built on the insight that most people are fundamentally selfish and care more for themselves and their families than the rest of society. The pandemic is deeply subversive of that philosophy, because my health depends on your good behaviour for which I give you nothing. What could be more stupid than that notion, if you are a conservative?

Index of Frank's Diaries