the Let's Talk About The Deep State - There Is No Deep State edition

NF, ONE L
​Issue #1

1. Hey, did you know the term comes from 1980's Turkey, as many other great things do? It was used in reference to the shadow military sway in what otherwise purported to be representative government in the halls of Ankara. Apparently 39% of Americans now believe there is an organized movement actively working against their particular interests, an agenda that is gauzy and provides no real information as to how or why, but certain political figures, in cynically alluding to pulling back the Oz curtain, have made what would otherwise be a straight-to-video movie starring Bruce Willis, Tara Reid, and a sentient monkey named "Mr. Filibuster" into something that otherwise fairly rational people have come to fully embrace.
It's rhetorical genius to prop up a bogeyman (Trump's one true skill) who can be faulted for all things too complex to simply Executive Action away, without the thing itself being named or known so that half a nation can project their fears onto it, and in doing so use the Zoloft of Vague Blame to soften the edges of their own lives.

2. But let's take a second to think about this more clearly. It is certainly true that there are many entrenched Federal workers in cushy jobs that are not essential to the functioning of government, but the same could be said of employees at Amazon, Walmart, FIFA, any law firm, any job anywhere. It is, after all, one of the functions of Capitalism that workers, instead of controlling the means of production and distribution, can instead control how much time they spend playing FarmVille on their $1000 phone while also drawing an hourly wage, or what tonnage of office supplies they choose to smuggle home over the course of a year.

3. This is, of course, very different than the lunatic obsession with the idea that the CIA, FBI, Justice Department, IRS, and most of federal bureaucracy have a mutual master plan to make it harder for blue collar workers in swing states to live the lives of their choosing. And also how this State Of Deepness is forever on the verge of insisting innocent citizens host drag shows in their living rooms on alternate Fridays, are not allowed to fully enjoy fried foods without shame, and have to swallow the Nazi Diktat that they take it easy on willfully spreading Covid to friends and neighbors. Which is interesting, because "The Deep State" is not helmed by actors and henchmen, but are our actual friends and neighbors. What, faceless mid-level Justice drones don't have kids and debts and likewise mundane concerns? They aren't one-dimensional snippets of script dialog, but actual people who are unlikely to take secret directives from George Soros? Do they all meet in some candle-lit basement and wear funny hats and decide weekly who to wield their secret powers against, but most likely conservative personal trainers in Michigan and Ohio? Why, after all, would these people want to Make America Decidedly Worse Again, when they are Americans living in America and subject to all things American all weekend long?

4. Here's a question: Did the Deep State not exist under Nixon, Ford, Reagan, Both Bushes, and Trump 1, only to emerge from hibernation like Outback Locusts each time a Democrat is elected, proceeding to swarm, buzz, and ultimately strip the land of leafy greens and the last golden bucket of Freedom Fries?

5. The dictionary definition of The Deep State:
-A country where a few wealthy citizens funnel money into an election to determine the outcome (Elon)
-Secret military forces that kidnap citizens who aren’t breaking any laws (check any headline today).
-A hidden government group with a backchannel of communication to hostile nations (Vlad The Poisoner).
-A government in which a leader appears to be in control, but is actually beholden to an unknown group of interested individuals who work outside the law to pass laws or enable political crimes (any toe-licker caught in the non-light-escaping black hole of Trump's ego).
-A government that illegally surveils its citizens to gain information to use against them (we're all screwed with this one).

6. I mean, does any of that sound like the Black the Kettle keeps calling it?

7. In the end, the Deep State is really the modern extension of the Kafka-branded sense of any system of power making inexplicable and contradictory pronouncements over which Regular Folks have no control. Like, for instance, Marco Rubio arguing yesterday that while it's true the US Government mistakenly deported Kilmar Abrego García to a notorious prison in El Salvador, at which the US Government is paying 6 million a year to house deportees, even though Garcia has the legal right to be in the United States and no criminal record, the US Government cannot demand Garcia's return because he is no longer in the custody of the US Government.
Now THAT'S some serious Gordian Knot/Deep State action. I'm presuming though, that since a Republican administration did it, and also the dude is brown (dirty), it's fine. No howling about the random cruelty or twisted logic of that action required from those who are convinced they're being screwed by activist lib judges on the regular just for laughs.
I personally feel a Deep State Of Melancholy and Terror At The Deep Shit State Of Our Nation, but I suspect that is not what they're referring to.

8. America loathes a wealthy puppet master, what with our history of constitutionally guaranteed freedoms and patriotic fervor, except when the wealthy puppet master is OUR wealthy puppet master, in which case it's fairly awesome.

9. I have to say that I do Deeply Miss (like a now-highly-successful collegiate lover) the relative political sanity of the 1980's, in which everyone knew Russia was evil, both parties had an obligation to work together on legislation, and an unapologetically Manichean view of all aspects of life was not something to be proud of, let alone slap as a bumper sticker onto the Cybertruck of your nihilistic certainty.

Next week: What We Talk About When We Talk About Ghislaine Maxwell.