National conservatism. Post-liberalism. Common-good conservatism. The American political Right is in the midst of a fundamental reorientation. Conservatives are getting antsy and want to flex their muscles. In particular, they’re looking to capture the administrative state, long a bastion of the technocratic Left. If the Right can infiltrate the bureaucracy, so the logic goes, perhaps conservatives can finally achieve a lasting victory against liberals.

It’s a strategy doomed to failure.