Galt's Gulch

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  • Posted by wootendw 3 years ago
    The part of the 'deep state' that is thought of as the 'real' power are the highest level bureaucrats whose careers span the terms of several presidents and Congresses.
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    • Posted by preimert1 3 years ago
      I recall a BBC series that appeared for a season on PBS entitled "Yes, Minister" that was about this very thing as the career support sfaff for PMs. And it is remeniscent of the network oj CPOs which actually run tne Navy.
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      • Posted by Lucky 3 years ago
        The "Yes, Minister" series, hilarious.
        While written in the UK it could be accurate about a hundred other nations and states. I heard some on the radio while driving. There are cassettes and CDs.

        The one that sticks in my memory is the 'Hospital with no patients'. The senior public service, deepstate, explained to a skeptical Minister how good that new hospital was- many jobs created, widespread economic benefits, visual appeal of the neighborhood enhanced by top landscaping and architecture, and so on. On a tour they saw how busy the staff were, admired the top interior design, gym, cafeterias, and well planned parking areas.
        I remember the echoing footsteps as the group walked thru an empty ward, then they passed thru a door into the general admin area, then hit by a wall of hectic office activity noise- phone conversations, keyboard tapping, meetings, photocopy machine buzzing..
        Every 30 seconds the Minister would expostulate, "But there are no patients!"

        A solution was found that satisfied deepstate, the complex was adapted to provide accommodation to hundreds of Mexican border crossers (Ok, in those days it would have been Vietnamese).
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  • Posted by mccannon01 3 years ago
    IMHO, "Deep State" is one of those nebulous phrases that changes meanings according to environment (context) like a chameleon changes color in its environment. Your stab at it with "unelected bureaucrats behind the scenes" is probably the most common. The "shallow state" is the elected government we see and the "deep state" is all the unelected people scampering around underneath the shallow state and may really run things. These unelected people don't have to be employees of our government as they can be corporate cronies or even foreigners (global deep state) that hold some power of sway over people in our government. Our government is huge and very little of it is actually elected and those people hold a great deal of sway over the elected portion and the governed as well. When you add in non-government people that can hold sway over elected officials the deep state gets even bigger and more powerful.

    Of course, if you read articles addressing "deep state" you will find many that blow it off as a conspiracy theory. Really? Just look at the systematic destruction of elected President Trump.
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