berg80
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- Oct 28, 2017
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The Man Who Popularized The 'Deep State' Doesn't Like The Way It's Used
Lofgren says he first encountered the term in a spy novel A Delicate Truth by John le Carre, who describes the hidden power brokers at work in Great Britain.
Now it pops up everywhere.
"Thank God for the deep state," said John McLaughlin, the former deputy director of the CIA. He spoke ironically, drawing laughs when he made the remark at a recent panel discussion at George Mason University.
But he was making a serious point as he spoke about government officials testifying before congressional committees at the impeachment inquiry.
"Everyone here has seen this progression of diplomats, and intelligence officers and White House people trooping up to Capitol Hill right now, and saying, 'These are people who are doing their duty,'" McLaughlin said.
When we caught up with McLaughlin a few days later, he said he had received some blowback for those comments. Then he went on to say:
Mike Lofgren, now retired at age 66, used to be one of those people when he was a Republican congressional staffer. Today, he says he's turned his back on the Republican Party."I think it's a silly idea. There is no 'deep state.' What people think of as the 'deep state' is just the American civil service, social security, the people who fix the roads, health and human services, Medicare."
In the error of Trumpery it's become a catch all term with more than a tinge of paranoia attached. I have asked a number of folks here about who they think is in the fictitious deep state and how it wields its power. That's when the conspiracy theory falls apart. It exists as an abstraction in the minds of Repubs but each time granular details of how it operates are demanded they are lost for words.
How do you become a member? Is there an ideological litmus test for membership? Are there meetings? Who runs them? Is there a concrete agenda? Do both Dems and Repubs belong?
The truth is it's a bogeyman of Repub's creation that came in to vogue along with Don who has used it to gin up distrust of government.
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