As Russia’s incursion into Ukraine continues along with the threat of further action on the horizon, America’s foreign policy establishment has once again been pushed to the forefront. President Joe Biden, as part of that group, gave a disturbingly shaky speech on Tuesday, in which he substituted insults of Vladimir Putin for any real response.

By that afternoon, the national conversation had solidly shifted to teeth-gnashing about Donald Trump (who is irrelevant to the current situation) and a House GOP assertion that Biden is weak. As evening approached, hand-wringing over Tucker Carlson as being supposedly “pro-Putin” commenced.

Pretty soon, the same people who have been wrong about almost every major foreign policy issue of the last half-century were more concerned with tone-policing than the fact that Russia had invaded Ukraine.

Why do Trump and Pompeo both use precise word “savvy” to describe Putin?

— Michael Beschloss (@BeschlossDC) February 22, 2022

Good morning. Reminder: Vladimir Putin is a murderous thug and Ukraine has a right to its sovereignty.

— Alyssa Farah Griffin (@Alyssafarah) February 23, 2022

I can’t think of something Putin cares less about than how American commentators and former government officials describe him. Yet, as has been the case so often in the past, the smartest among us value virtue-signaling over the formulation of an effective strategy. Calling Putin a thug or suggesting he’s dumb is not a solution to the situation unfolding. In fact, it’s counter-productive to so misunderstand and underestimate one’s adversary.

To put things into perspective, while Putin was busy laying the groundwork for his big move, this was what the best minds at the State Department were up to. Behold, the shallow ineptness of American foreign policy laid bare once again.

The chorus is growing louder every day. We urge the Russian government to de-escalate and choose the path of diplomacy. I stand alongside leaders who are #UnitedWithUkraine. pic.twitter.com/aoM2UfMAdm

— Secretary Antony Blinken (@SecBlinken) February 20, 2022

That video was essentially the extent of the West’s plan to counter Russia’s aggression, and it’s the epitome of the pathetic hashtag diplomacy we’ve seen so much of during the Obama and Biden administrations. While Putin has been playing chess, his biggest critics have been content to keep playing checkers. But to discuss that reality and what it means in practical terms for U.S. national security is to welcome accusations of treason.

While so many were getting the vapors over Trump calling Putin's plan genius, Putin was busy actually executing a genius plan. You can keep virtue signaling or start understanding who you are dealing with so as to effectively counter him. https://t.co/OBzThfdYMY

— Bonchie (@bonchieredstate) February 23, 2022

That’s not going to happen, though. Our foreign policy betters have learned no lessons from their abject failures in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, and the rest. Instead, they continue to believe despots like Putin care about their slights and condemnations. Meanwhile, actions that could actually help change the status quo are ignored. Imagine how much more effective upping Western energy production would be in hurting Russian leverage, compared to calling Putin a doody-head on Twitter?

Are any of our supposedly brilliant foreign policy experts even suggesting that? Of course not. Rather, whining about Tucker Carlson and Donald Trump must take priority, as if international incidents are solved by policing domestic wrong-think. Never mind that it is an authoritarian notion that one can’t speak with nuance about geopolitical issues without being called a traitor.

All of this should be yet another reminder of how mediocre and unqualified much of the smart set in Washington is. Never has a group of people been given more for producing less, and that’s a fact not lost on the average American. They see the same people who have cost them so dearly for decades once again trying to dictate what they can say and what the country must do, and they aren’t ready to take that same ride again.

In the end, that was the core of Tucker Carlson’s critique that drew so much consternation. His invitation for people to ask themselves why they hate Vladimir Putin was not a demand to love or even like him. Instead, it was a suggestion that you shouldn’t just blindly follow whatever the over-credentialed class demands. After all, what have they done to earn that kind of power?