Deep State Strikes Again Meme Deep State Strickes Back

Mike Lofgren, 66, is a former congressional staffer who wrote the 2016 book, The Deep State. He says the term, as he defined it, is being badly misused past President Trump and his supporters. They see the 'deep country' every bit Democratic-leaning bureaucrats who want to undermine the president. Courtesy of Mike Lofgren hide caption

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Courtesy of Mike Lofgren

Mike Lofgren, 66, is a quondam congressional staffer who wrote the 2016 book, The Deep Country. He says the term, as he divers it, is existence badly misused by President Trump and his supporters. They meet the 'deep state' every bit Democratic-leaning bureaucrats who want to undermine the president.

Courtesy of Mike Lofgren

Mike Lofgren is the very definition of a civil servant. He was a congressional staffer for 28 years, with most of that time spent crunching numbers on the Senate and House budget committees.

He's moderate and balmy-mannered, maxim, "I was on the Republican side my whole career. I wasn't a civilization wars Republican, basically a fiscal bourgeois in the way of say, [President Dwight] Eisenhower."

Lofgren was turned off by the Tea Party Republicans who came into Congress in 2011, and decided it was fourth dimension to quit. Three years later, Lofgren wrote an essay called, "Anatomy of the Deep Country."

The essay is not partisan. Lofgren criticizes both parties, along with the national security community, Wall Street and Silicon Valley. And he takes pains to bespeak out that he's not a conspiracy theorist.

His bones point is that big institutions, inside and outside of government, are so entrenched it's hard to bring whatever existent change. Political options are limited.

"This is non to say it'due south the worst of all worlds," Lofgren said. "You sort of become a choice between Coke and New Coke."

His idea first gained traction among progressives who felt Republicans were pursuing a scorched-earth policy to thwart President Barack Obama.

Mike Lofgren, a one-time congressional staffer, wrote The Deep State in 2016. While the term is at present widely in utilize, it's not in the way that Lofgren intended. He appears here on a PBS program hosted by commentator Bill Moyers.

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In fact, Lofgren wrote his essay for the website of liberal commentator Bill Moyers, and also appeared on the PBS program he hosted.

The state of 'deep country'

Lofgren expanded his essay into a 2016 book called: The Deep State: The Fall Of The Constitution And The Rise Of A Shadow Authorities. The volume got some favorable reviews, simply didn't set the publishing world on burn down.

And so President Trump took office.

"Unelected, deep state operatives who defy the voters, to push their ain clandestine agendas, are truly a threat to commonwealth itself," Trump said at a rally last twelvemonth, one of the many times he's invoked the term.

For the president and his supporters, deep state is shorthand for Autonomous-leaning bureaucrats who want to undermine Trump.

Breitbart began extensive coverage to "deep state" stories around the time Trump entered office, and others accept followed. In a search of Television set transcripts, the term "deep country" appeared only 64 times in 2016, the year Lofgren published his book.

In 2017, information technology shot up to nearly two,300 mentions, and surged to nearly v,000 hits last twelvemonth, many of them on Fox News.

And it'south rarely, if ever, used the mode Mike Lofgren intended.

"It's like I released this species into the wild and what it did, or maybe it's a Frankenstein, and what it does is not within my control," he said.

The idea of a conspiratorial deep state goes back centuries. Some trace it to aboriginal Rome. In recent decades, it has been used to describe countries such as Turkey and Islamic republic of pakistan, where the security forces were seen equally dictating orders to elected governments.

Le Carre novel

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 upwards everywhere.

"Thank God for the deep land," said John McLaughlin, the quondam 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 most government officials testifying before congressional committees at the impeachment inquiry.

"Everyone hither has seen this progression of diplomats, and intelligence officers and White House people trooping upwardly 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 after, he said he had received some blowback for those comments. Then he went on to say:

"I recall it'south a silly thought. In that location is no 'deep country.' What people recollect of as the 'deep state' is just the American civil service, social security, the people who prepare the roads, health and human services, Medicare."

Mike Lofgren, now retired at age 66, used to exist i of those people when he was a Republican congressional staffer. Today, he says he's turned his back on the Republican Party.

"I am an independent who will not vote Republican until they demonstrate to me that they've purged Trumpism and that they're a sane party," he said.

Rachel Treisman is an intern on NPR's National Desk.

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Source: https://www.npr.org/2019/11/06/776852841/the-man-who-popularized-the-deep-state-doesnt-like-the-way-its-used

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