Deep State From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia:
“For other uses, see Deep state (disambiguation). “State within a state” redirects here. A deep state is a type of governance made up of potentially secret and unauthorised networks of power operating independently of a state’s political leadership in pursuit of their own agenda and goals. In popular usage, the term carries overwhelmingly negative connotations, although this does not reflect scholarly understanding. The range of possible uses of the term is similar to that for shadow government.”
Nowhere in the Constitution does it carve out a spot for secretive bureaucracies that never have to answer to the public.
Much ink has been spilled over the past few years on the subject of “the deep state”, what it is, who operates it, where it is located, whether it is secretly working. It has therefore become important to undertake a more serious treatment of the deep state, one that avoids the pitfalls of the partisan fracas. On December 6th and January 6th , President Trump’s Words Shook the World. . . Video below:
To attempt a definition, the deep state is that portion of the federal administrative bureaucracy that is unaccountable, secretive and opaque, relatively permanent, and armed with extremely dangerous powers, regularly abused (though we might observe here that such powers themselves are abuses per se).
Of particular importance here are the military, intelligence, and national security components of this apparatus, not only because their activities are the most dangerous and most offensive to the rule of law, but because they are the most secretive and unresponsive to electoral politics.
Nominally and formally a part of the executive branch, this bureaucracy is a de facto fourth branch, nowhere contemplated by the Constitution, isolated from any notion of popular sovereignty. It is unaccountable in that it acts with impunity and without meaningful oversight from the people’s representatives in Congress or from the President.
There is no one to check it or rein it in. Almost all of its actions are kept secret, privileged and classified as implicating sensitive national security concerns; the deep state is thus completely lacking in transparency, always pointing to the safety and security of American citizens to justify its secrets. Related to its secrecy is its mendacity, its reliance on a systematic program of lies and disinformation designed to hide its actions from the public and the democratic branches of government.
Also: List of Indictments, Arrests and Executions – Dismantling the Deep State Operatives and Doubles. January 29, 2021
So commonplace are the lies of the intelligence and national security establishment that American journalists on the whole no longer even feign surprise or outrage when intelligence bigwigs like James Clapper and Michael Hayden (to give just two prominent examples) brazenly lie to our elected representatives; they are handsomely rewarded for their “service,” uniformly belauded by the Right People with the Right Opinions. This is dangerous to a free society, more dangerous than Trump’s ridiculous brand of Know Nothingism.
The deep state is also characterized by its relative permanence, its personnel remaining in their positions regardless of who occupies the White House. Indeed, the “deep” in “deep state” denotes, perhaps, elements that are abiding or enduring, unchanged by the country’s two and four‐year electoral substitutions, a group of permanent power centers underneath, if you will, politics.
Finally, it is defined by the kind of absolute power it wields, the power of life and death, its very real license to kill—and to do so outside of the judicial process, beyond the reach of the law (domestic or international) and elected officials.
It kills, tortures, imprisons, spies, and conspires in the overthrow of foreign governments all without any requirement that it answer to anyone. We must ask how a supposed liberal democracy reconcile itself to such power.
It is interesting to witness elite Beltway centrists grapple with the deep state as an object of commentary, to see them vacillate between two irreconcilable positions:
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(A) the deep state does not exist, but is only a ridiculous, though still dangerous, right‐wing conspiracy theory concocted by Trump apologists to damage faith in government institutions and legitimate civil service;
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(B) something like the deep state certainly exists, but is worthy of praise and admiration as the locus of the knowledge, expertise, and superior judgment of qualified professionals who have nobly chosen to serve their country rather than making lots of money in the private sector.