TRUMP TOUCHES THIRD RAIL OF DEEP STATE —GETS BURNED
July 17, 2018
President Trump is on his way back from Helsinki and his “one on one” with President Putin of the Russia Confederation. His meeting went well on its critical elements: attempting to reduce world tensions, limit conflict in Syria, and to control the proliferation of nuclear weapons . But at home, he is facing a firestorm of hyperbolic accusations based on his refusal to publicly blame the Russian leader for meddling in 2016 elections and casting doubt on the findings of his own intelligence agencies ( see below). Former Obama-appointed CIA chief John Brennan, a frequent and regular Trump hater and critic, confirmed his diagnosis of “Trump derangement syndrome” by characterizing the President’s remarks as “treasonous” (how this guy was ever appointed head of the CIA baffles me) , while Sen. John McCain claimed they were a “tragic mistake”.
The President did make a “mistake”. He was not aware (or purposely ignored) the deep state’s primary dictum—the USA’s political “third rail”—which is that there can be no questioning the existential threat and evil nature of our national enemies of the moment our “enemy list”. Everyone in politics must toe to the infantile propaganda line that we are the “good guys” and those others out there are the “bad guys”. As a nation, we have always had some “established” enemy. Early in our history the British wore that epithet, then the French, then the Native Americans, when they were subdued— the Spanish too on that mantle, later on when I was a boy, we had the “Japs and the Nazis”, then the Koreans (we had certain names for them too) —now it is the—“the Castro bothers”, Iranian mullahs, ISIS and Russia, and anyone who might favor “socialism” for their nation, like perhaps President Maduro of Venezuela. We seem to have a desperate need for “enemies”. Without a permanent enemy list how could we justify the close to a trillion dollars removed annually from our tax revenues to devote to military funding, our unending wars, our world-girdling military bases, and our “defense”—out of a $3.6 trillion (2018) dollar tax-revenue stream?
The Deep State
According to author Mike Lofgren’s book “The Deep State,” (2016, Penguin) the deep state is a web of entrenched interests in the US government ( add in Wall Street and Silicon Valley) which acts as a “shadow government and attempts to control America’s defense decisions, trade, and foreign policy with no regard to the actual interests and wishes of the American voting public or for that matter elected officials.
If anyone ever doubted the existence of an American “deep state” recent events should have evaporated those doubts like morning dew on a hot summer day. The ugly facts which emerged in the aftermath of the 2016 election like slime oozing out of a rusted garbage dumpster reveal the evil existence of—the deep state—and the sad facts that the national-scurity-military-industrial complex- whatever you want to call it is calling the shots against Trump.
The term “Deep State” is often applied to third world nations like Egypt and Turkey. The US media (an arm of the deep state itself) are loathe to use the term to describe such circumstances in the USA . But the differences between America and that of the nations where the term was coined are only of the extent of activity and the level of violence. One has only to read the Strzok and Paige email streams to understand that in the USA there is a corps of government employees in an intercommunicative network (which includes the media and the elements of Wall Street and Silicon Valley) who see themselves as the “last defense” against actions of an elected official that they view as a threat to (not the state0 but to their power, wealth-networks, access to nepotism, income, and job-security. They see themselves as the “guardians” against change to a system that many have spent a lifetime adapting to. They ignore the fact that in a democracy the power to make policy and decisions rests only with the voters and the ELECTED GOVERNMENT.
Way back in February 20, 2017 David Graham wrote a piece in the “ Atlantic” entitled: “There is No American Deep State”. Graham’s argument was mostly a semantic one, attempting to persuade the reader that the term “deep state” as used to define that condition in Turkey—did not accurately fit the American situation. But since then, in the last year and a half of the Trump Presidency the evidence for a (Turkey-like) deep state has mounted up in giant steaming piles, manifesting itself in the form of politically motivated investigations of “collusion”, evidence of domestic political spying, politicization of intelligence agencies and the FBI, of bureaucrats slow-walking the President’s agenda, of leaks from the government to a compliant and in-collusion-media, as well as in every way possible the deep state pursuing efforts to undermine the voter’s choice and the legitimately elected official’s agenda.
As if to underscore and expose the existence and power of the Deep State, just a few days before President Trump’s well-publicized Helsinki meeting, the Department of Justice Deputy-AG, Rod Rosenstein, held a news conference revealing (for no apparent reason of timeliness) the indictment of 12 Russian hackers who were allegedly responsible for “meddling” in the 2016 election. The announcement came just a few days prior to the President’s long-awaited meeting with President Putin. It was seen as an obvious shot across the bow of the President— as a warning. Here was the actual deep state exposing itself and its power—in action—attempting to control what Mr. Trump would or could say at the Putin meeting. President Trump was not cowed by Rosenstein. He ignored the AG’s briefing—but perhaps to with the firestorm of complaints—to his sorrow.
In the USA it is clear we have a permanent powerful and invasive bureaucracy, a compliant media in league with the establishment, and a military captive of the industry which supports it. We have a powerful financial sector, an invasive and pervasive technology sector and a state of perpetual war. All of these elements are poised in potential opposition to the elected branch of government. They are opposed to the American voter who they see as “ignorant”, “smelly” and “irredeemable”. If, as in the case of Helsinki, the President undermines or calls into question basic tenets of the unelected establishment -such as the validity or character of our “enemies” list—the deep state rises up to sanction, silence—- or to eliminate him or her. .
That dangerous development —the denouement of a “Etat profond” is more of a threat to our nation and its democracy than anything that Mr. Trump’s detractors worry that he is liable to do. He is an elected official who will be gone after a term of 4 or 8 years. But the hidden, unelected, powerful deep state will remain to control our elections, to undermine the power of officials they do not approve of and control the levers of state that they have no right to manipulate. You get the picture.
If we do not resist the real threat we are faced with now, (it is not Trump) our future as a democratic nation is bleak. The next step is a nation with meaningless trappings of democracy with empty elections and office holders taking orders from the man behind the green curtain.
It is time to call out the Deep State for what it is— an existential threat to our democracy.
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