ACTUALLY, IF YOU BELIEVE IN DEMOCRACY, THIS IS AN ARGUMENT FOR THE “SPOILS SYSTEM.”

“The civil service will interpret a Donald Trump presidency as damage and route around it.”

That was the recent consensus at one of those infamous Washington dinner parties that so repulse Trump fans. (What can I say? We in Washington also have to eat. And while we do, we talk about politics.)

The line, of course, was a play on a gleeful old hacker credo: “The Internet interprets censorship as damage and routes around it.” But it was offered in earnest, and on reflection, I think it’s correct. . . .

Washingtonians, unlike the people making the demands, actually have to analyze the feasibility of these various sorts of requests. When they do, they quickly see that they are impossible, and set about finding innovative ways to ignore them. The insiders who need to get elected nonetheless say, “Yup, I’ll get right on that,” and then ignore them.

The civil service, on the other hand, has been eager to self-weaponize on Obama’s behalf. Which is why the argument that the bureaucracy’s behavior is just a result of realism and circumstance rings hollow.