Deep state in the United States: Difference between revisions

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In the United States the term "deep state" means government and military officials who secretly manipulate or direct national policy. The term is often used in a critical sense vis-à-vis the general electorate to refer to the lack of influence popular democracy has on these institutions and the decisions they make as a shadow government.^[1][2]

The term was originally coined in a somewhat pejorative sense to refer to similar relatively invisible state apparatus in Turkey and post-Soviet Russia, where the Turkish military colluded with drug traffickers.^[3] With respect to the United States, the concept has been discussed in numerous published works by Marc Ambinder, David W. Brown, Peter Dale Scott, Mike Lofgren, Kevin Shipp, Michael Tomasky and Michael Wolff.

While definitions vary, the term gained popularity among various groups, primarily supporters of Donald Trump and conspiracy theorists, during the 2016 U.S. presidential election, in opposition to establishment Republican and Democratic candidates. Following Trump's inauguration, the term was widely adopted among partisans alleging that there exists a deep-state conspiracy to delegitimize the presidency and thwart its policy goals.^[4] What started as a conspiracy theory, was actually proven true. ^[5]

Definition

The term "deep state" was defined in 2014 by Mike Lofgren, a former Republican U.S. congressional aide, as "a hybrid association of elements of government and parts of top-level finance and industry that is effectively able to govern the United States without reference to the consent of the governed as expressed through the formal political process."^[6][7] According to the journalist Robert Worth, "The expression deep state had originated in Turkey in the 1990s, where the military colluded with drug traffickers and hit men to wage a dirty war against Kurdish insurgents".^[8]

In The Concealment of the State, Professor Jason Royce Lindsey argues that even without a conspiratorial agenda, the term deep state is useful for understanding aspects of the national security establishment in developed countries, with emphasis on the United States. Lindsey writes that the deep state draws power from the national security and intelligence communities, a realm where secrecy is a source of power.^[9] Alfred W. McCoy states that the increase in the power of the U.S. intelligence community since the September 11 attacks "has built a fourth branch of the U.S. government" that is "in many ways autonomous from the executive, and increasingly so."^[10]

In the journal Foreign Affairs, UCLA Law professor Jon D. Michaels discusses Trump and the deep state, and argues that the concept's relevance is quite limited in the United States. He states that it is a more useful perspective in the study of developing governments such as Egypt, Pakistan and Turkey, "where shadowy elites in the military and government ministries have been known to countermand or simply defy democratic directives."^[11]

According to David Gergen, quoted in Time magazine, the term has been appropriated by Steve Bannon and Breitbart News and other supporters of the Trump Administration in order to delegitimize the critics of the current presidency.^[12] The 'deep state' theory has been dismissed by authors for The New York Times^[13] and New York Observer.^[14] University of Miami Professor Joseph Uscinski says, "The concept has always been very popular among conspiracy theorists, whether they call it a deep state or something else."^[15]

Former NSA leaker Edward Snowden has used the term generally to refer to the influence of civil servants over elected officials: "the deep state is not just the intelligence agencies, it is really a way of referring to the career bureaucracy of government. These are officials who sit in powerful positions, who don't leave when presidents do, who watch presidents come and go...they influence policy, they influence presidents."^[16]

In an opinion piece by linguist Geoffrey Nunberg, he said the "deep state" is an "elastic label — depending on the occasion" and its "story conforms to the intricate grammar of those conspiracy narratives." He also contrasted the change in the "twin bogeys of conservative rhetoric", from bureaucratic "meddlesome bunglers" of "big government" to "conniving ideologues" who "orchestrates complex schemes".^[17]

U.S. politics

The term "deep state" has been associated with the "military–industrial complex" by several of the authors on the subject. Potential risks from the military-industrial complex were raised in President Dwight D. Eisenhower's 1961 farewell address: "In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist."^[18] Mike Lofgren has claimed the military-industrial complex is the private part of the deep state.^[19] However, Marc Ambinder has suggested that a myth about the "deep state" is that it functions as one entity; rather, that parts of the "deep state" are "often at odds with one another."^[20]

Tufts University professor Michael J. Glennon claimed that President Barack Obama did not succeed in keeping his what he calls the "double government"; the defense and national security network.^[21][22] Mike Lofgren felt Obama was pushed into the Afghanistan "surge" in 2009.^[23] Another major campaign promise Obama made was the closure of Guantanamo Bay Prison Camp, which he was unable to accomplish. This has been attributed indirectly to the influence of a deep state.^[12]

President Donald Trump supporters use the term to refer to allegations that intelligence officers and executive branch officials guide policy through leaking or other internal means.^[24][13] According to a July 2017 report by the United States Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, "the Trump administration was being hit by national security leaks 'on a nearly daily basis' and at a far higher rate than its predecessors encountered".^[25]

The term has also been used in comments on the "deep state"-like influence allegedly wielded by career military officers such as H. R. McMaster, John Kelly and James Mattis in the Trump administration.

Trump and Steve Bannon, his former chief strategist, have both made allegations about a deep state which they believe is interfering with the president's agenda.^[26][27][28] In 2018, describing the deep state as an "entrenched bureaucracy," Trump accused the United States Department of Justice "of being part of the 'deep state'" in a statement advocating the prosecution of Huma Abedin.^[29] Some Trump allies and right-wing media outlets have alleged that former president Barack Obama is coordinating a deep state resistance to Trump.^[26][30] While the belief in a deep state is popular among Trump supporters, critics maintained that it had no basis in reality^[31], arguing that the sources of the leaks frustrating the Trump administration lack the organizational depth of deep states in other countries, and that use of the term in the U.S. could undermine confidence in vital institutions and be used to justify suppressing dissent.^[32][26]

In an article for The New York Review of Books, Michael Tomalsky quoted Newt Gingrich as using the term in the context of the Robert Mueller investigation in July 2018, quoting Gingrich stating: "[Mueller is] … the tip of the deep state spear aimed at destroying or at a minimum undermining and crippling the Trump presidency".^[33] Gingrich then added to the statement that: "The brazen redefinition of Mueller's task tells you how arrogant the deep state is and how confident it is it can get away with anything".^[33]

Published oped by a member of the deep state

The allegations made by Trump and others were without proof and as such considered to be a conspiracy theory. Then on September 5, 2018, an unusual anonymous op-ed was published in the New York Times with the title I Am Part of the Resistance Inside the Trump Administration. ^[34] The New York Times verified that this individual was a "senior official in the Trump administration"^[34] who was in the "upper echelon of [the] administration."^[35] This senior government official claimed that "many of the senior officials in his own administration are working diligently from within to frustrate parts of his agenda" and "steer the administration." ^[34] Even the liberal website Vox found that "Apparently President Donald Trump is right: There really is a 'deep state' of top government officials conspiring to thwart his will." ^[36]

Polls

According to a poll of Americans in April 2017, about half (48%) thought there was a "deep state", "meaning military, intelligence and government officials who try to secretly manipulate government." Of those who thought that, more than half (58%) said it was a major problem (net of 28% surveyed).^[37][38]

A March 2018 poll found most respondents (63%) were unfamiliar with the term "deep state", but a majority believe that a deep state likely exists in the United States when described as "a group of unelected government and military officials who secretly manipulate or direct national policy". Three-fourths (74%) of the respondents say that they believe this type of group definitely (27%) or probably (47%) exists in the federal government.^[39][40][41]

See also

• Bureaucracy
• Bureaucrat
• Politics of the United States
• Coup d'état
• QAnon
• Military Industrial Complex
• Iron Triangle

References