Thread by @AriSchulman

The reported Fauci oppo memo has me feeling good about my argument here that our culture knows only two ways to relate to expertise — deference or defiance — and that this treats experts as having more political power than they should: newrepublic.com/article/158058…

If you have to release an oppo dump on your own scientific advisor, it means you have de facto given him the power of a rival political opponent, when instead if you don't like his advice you could just replace him or ignore him. It's a nice gift for Fauci.

To be clear, I believe Fauci, if hardly infallible, has a strong record during the pandemic and the WH should continue to take his advice seriously. But their attempt to publicly undermine the credibility of one of their own top advisors while keeping him on staff is cowardly.

—and self-defeating cowardice at that. If you strike him down, etc etc.

Note also that the Fauci oppo dump is the mirror image of this letter writer who thinks the most important thing is for him to #SpeakHisTruth. (And that both want him to step down on symbolic grounds.) nytimes.com/2020/07/10/opi…

Right. The president is so afraid of his own employee that his admin has to anonymously “drop” to the Washington Post ... public statements Fauci already made. And he’s so weak that he can’t handle just firing him. Sad!