Joe Biden has not been officially certified as the winner of the presidential election, but the establishment hangers-on who supported him, either directly or tacitly, are already measuring the drapes. They see a return to “normalcy” that benefits them politically and financially.

This is especially true for the establishment’s foreign policy “experts.” Never has a group been so desperate to fall back into the status quo of starting new wars every few years and pretending that decorum is more important than dead bodies.

Hence, you get takes like this from Tom Nichols.

The most perverse, disgusting aspect of the Washington establishment is the idea that there aren’t moral repercussions to bad foreign policy and waging poorly thought out conflicts. But Biden won’t salute or something! What moral icon, right? https://t.co/7M6sPXvFcf

— Bonchie (@bonchieredstate) November 12, 2020

You know what matters a lot more than putting your hand over your heart at Arlington? A 19 year war in Afghanistan that has accomplished almost nothing and continues apace with no logical reason to do so. Yet, it’s Trump who is the bad person because he salutes the troops or something. Makes sense, right?

This is all part of the incredibly warped, gross system of morality which permeates Washington. Mean tweets are worthy of breathless coverage for four years, but Joe Biden’s garbage foreign policy that has led to more wars, mostly ineffectively fought, being started than one can keep track of is brushed aside as normal. Trump wanting to leave Afghanistan is described as a “hasty withdrawal” while the rest of us wonder what exactly would qualify as slow at this point. None of it makes sense to the average American, but it makes a lot of sense to an establishment that makes its living off of ignoring the moral repercussions of bad foreign policy. What’s worse? Trying to do a deal with Kim Jung Un, or waging a nearly 20 year war in a country that holds zero national interest to us anymore, costing thousands of American lives with no end in sight?

You see how screwed up the priorities are? Trump said something mean, but Biden is decent, you know, except for all the dead bodies. But forget about whether you think our current wars are still justified or not. Look at Biden’s decision making in Syria for a more abstract example. That’s a conflict that hasn’t cost thousands of American lives. But it has cost over half a million Syrians their lives. And for what? So Biden and John Kerry could feel like tough guys demanding regime change? What was moral about supporting and arming jihadis so they could perpetrate a massive civil war that accomplished absolutely nothing? But he tweets they cry!

There are a lot of awful aspects of a possible Biden presidency. To the extent that it can still be prevented, I’m all in to make sure he’s stopped from assuming office. But if he is sworn in, there is no worse, more immoral consequence that the fact that he will usher back in a foreign policy that has been disastrous for American interests, but more importantly, disastrous for real people who have lost their lives. That no one is ever made to answer for that while our media wring their hands over decorum is one of the great shames of our political environment.

(Please follow me on Twitter! @bonchieredstate)