The Rand Corporation has done more than basically any group in the twentieth century to shape what kind of world we’re living in now, and they’re weirdly unrecognized for that
the fact they’re responsible for the MAD nuclear deterrence doctrine alone is mind boggling
Did you know they were aware that the Iraq War would be, well, more like it actually was and less lile the Bush administration thought it would be? Which is less impressive by itself, but more impressive relative to the cluelessness of various other US government institutions.
After that, I began to wonder if government quality could be improved by replacing the legislature with think tanks.
I kinda don’t know how to react to that.
The first problem is believing that the Bush administration actually believed their own PR. The second problem is not assuming that Rand wasn’t working hand in hand with the administration. The third problem is believing government institutions are clueless. The fourth is not acknowledging that think tanks already have more de facto control than most official government positions, hence the origin of the term “deep state”.
They probably didn’t believe their nonsense about WMDs, they probably did believe they wouldn’t make a clusterfuck that would ruin the Republican brand for many people and lead to ISIS.
From what I’ve heard, the admin basically ignored any naysayers, so if RAND told them how it would go, that doesn’t mean they listened to them.
Honestly, there is a lot more incompetence than scheming a lot of the time. Also incompetent scheming. But it’s like assuming Trump is playing 4D chess, when it seems in reality there is no Trump Master Plan. Also lots of individuals working locally at cross-purposes.
Think tanks have some control over legislation because legislators are lazy, but most legislation that actually gets passed is worse than what the think tanks come up with.
Anyhow, see my National Delegation post.