The Deep State
What exactly is it?
What exactly is it? This term entered our political vernacular in 2017 and it sounds ominous. When you ask people who use the term what it means their answers vary, but here’s the gist. It refers to a secret government or power structure working behind the scenes of our elected government to affect the outcome of events. Intelligence agencies like the FBI, CIA, NSA, and elements of our military, banking etc. are covertly involved in shaping results for everyday Americans. The idea seems spooky and farfetched until you realize that over 50% of Americans believe in something similar. We all know our government and intelligence agencies keep things from us for national security reasons and we mostly accept that. But this is an area vital to our security that we are mostly in the dark on and therefore must trust our elected officials, the military and the checks and balances built into our government to oversee it. We Americans are by nature, suspicious as we should be, but this trust is as old as our nation. If we break that trust, what replaces it? Here’s a few examples of why distrust exists and some of the logic used:
The JFK assassination: Every administration promises to release the full truth. Instead, more than 60 years later, we continue to receive redacted crumbs and the mystery continues. Americans were given the Warren Report in 1964 that concluded that there was a sole assassin and no conspiracy. In 1978, the House select Committee on Assassinations concluded JFK was “probably assassinated as a result of a conspiracy”. Over time, evidence of conspiracy has become overwhelming. What’s happened since? Crickets. Somebody decided that we didn’t need to know who murdered our young President in broad daylight, so we don’t. This now spans 11 administrations.
9/11: Americans watched in horror as planes filled with our fellow Americans smashed into two of the world’s tallest buildings and burned as rescuers raced towards those trapped. The horror reached a new level as one of these monstrous buildings came crashing down, pancaking exactly as if caused by a controlled demolition. Then the next. Immediately we were told that the strange and uniform collapses were caused by the intense heat from the fuel of the planes that melted the framing and eventually caused the collapse. But then building 7 collapsed in the exact same way, a 47-story structure that had not been hit by either plane flattened in an instant. The conspiracies soon swarmed as other details emerged from that terrible day. We then invaded Iraq because a Saudi hiding in Pakistan caused it all. Are you following all this?
UFO’s: It started in Roswell in 1947 and continues today. The sightings have been continual, and the film collection and eye-witness testimony has been voluminous. In 1997 thousands of people in Phoenix including the state’s Governor Fife Simington saw first-hand a craft that was city blocks wide and long, traveling low and silently. "I'm a pilot and I know just about every machine that flies," Symington said. "It was bigger than anything that I've ever seen. It remains a great mystery. Other people saw it, responsible people. I don't know why people would ridicule it."
More recently, we’ve had seemingly credible whistleblowers inside military intelligence, confirming and testifying that they do exist. But our government still says there’s no conclusive evidence of extraterrestrial intelligence. The aliens are probably saying the same thing about us.
Those are just a few examples of why distrust exists, but there are many more. One thing logical people can conclude however is that whatever secret government exists, it crosses party lines and decades of time. Which brings us back to the term’s origin and current use.
Although the term “deep state” is said to have its roots in Turkey, it was introduced to America by a republican Staffer in 2014 named Mike Lofgren with his theme paper titled “The Anatomy of a Deep State”. He wrote about the Deep State and the fact that it is an entity not controlled by either party which provides the infrastructure that operates America 24/7. It is comprised of civil servants across a broad spectrum, and it consists of citizens from both parties and all walks of life. It is a power that exists in America that transcends elections and keeps the lights on. It’s essentially the same that operates in all countries worldwide so they can function all the time.
Today the term is used by some in our political discourse to describe a secret government that is aligned with the radical left to undermine our elected government. This opens the door for waging war against our institutions since they are corrupted and controlled by the other party anyway. This is incredibly dangerous and illogical. It takes our constitutional republic, calls it corrupt and encourages open season on it. The laws, rules and norms that have kept us free for 247 years are now under assault because someone says the bad guys own them. Once you buy into this nonsense you are on board with waging war against yourself and the laws and institutions that keep you free. How does Mike Lofgren feel about how his “Deep State” thesis is currently being defined and used? He’s not happy about it and has left politics because of it.
"Read about the origins of the term 'deep state' on NPR."
When independence had been won against the British, the revered French statesman The Marquis de Lafayette declared: “Humanity has won its battle. Liberty now has a country.” That country is our republic, and that liberty comes from our laws and subsequent institutions. Those institutions help establish and maintain our freedom. They should be strengthened, not weakened, respected, not vilified. America was created long before either political party and our Constitution has kept us free for nearly two and a half centuries. Our allegiance should be to it, not party and certainly not conspiracy theories.