Where exactly is the Deep State?

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 23/08/2018 (2624 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Recently, a slew of U.S. President Donald Trump’s political gatherings have been attracting a noticeable group of conspiracy believers. Known as followers of QAnon (or Q-Anonymous) — you see them with a “Q” emblazoned on their ball caps, T-shirts and sundry placards — they are diehard backers of The Donald.

Waiting in the rain before Trump’s Wilkes-Barre, Penn., rally, a handful of “Q” supporters were interviewed by a CNN reporter. When asked what “Q” (the person or persons behind it) actually stands for, one disciple explained breathlessly, “It’s an entity of 10 or 11 people that have high-security clearance.”

And if that isn’t clear, one other “Q” backer said confidently, “It’s a movement, man, a shift and I can feel it coming. Some call it the Great Awakening.” Still another fellow traveller stressed that the fringe group is comprised of “people that believe in what Trump is trying to do to change the country.”

One of the main targets of QAnon frustration is the mainstream media, which is the real enemy. Wearing a red MAGA ball cap, one angry “Q” advocate blurted out to the befuddled CNN photojournalist, “You guys are weaponized. You are totally weaponized by the CIA.”

What most “Q” acolytes have in common is indeed an unshakeable belief in the so-called “Deep State” and its surreptitious efforts to undermine or destabilize the Trump administration. In the words of another “Q” supporter, “I think they (those from the Deep State) were running the country, but they are petrified now because they are losing their control.”

As far as they are concerned, the Deep State — which exists secretly at the highest levels of the U.S. government — has been conspiring against Trump since he declared himself a presidential candidate in 2015. And they all see these dark and powerful forces working behind the scenes in conjunction with one another to destroy his presidency. Much of their ire is focused on a cabal of like-minded officials from the U.S. State Department, the FBI and, most important, the U.S. intelligence community.

I’m actually a believer in explaining some policy decisions by resorting to a “bureaucratic politics” approach. And I’m convinced that the old adage is correct: “Where you stand depends on where you sit (organizationally).” There are certainly government officials who prefer specific policy prescriptions because they serve to perpetuate the organization’s survival and interests, or even to advance the careers of individual departmental members.

For sure, members of the bureaucracy do have a number of levers at their disposal: they control the information flow to the top, who gets access to the government minister and whether or not policy decisions are actually implemented.

But whatever this “internal politics” is, it is definitely not monolithic or acting as one cohesive unit. In fact, these departmental entities vigorously compete against one another — mostly for organizational stature and prestige, policy mandate and, of course, budgetary resources. There is no Deep State concept, though, simply because government departments dislike one another and seek to freeze each other out of the policy-making process.

The whole Deep State conceptualization, then, does not make a whole lot of sense when you think about it critically. Indeed, if the Deep State was out to get Trump with a vengeance, the FBI would have gone public with the fact that it was investigating potential linkages between the 2016 Trump presidential campaign team and the Russians.

The fact that no one really knows where this Deep State resides, congregates or how many people are part of this secret enterprise is telling. Are proponents of this theory also forgetting that Trump himself has appointed all the top leadership at these various U.S. government agencies?

More to the point, how is it that no one has come forward to spill the beans on this highly influential bureaucratic enclave? After all, we are talking about “leaky” Washington here. There is just no way that the existence of such a thing could remain under wraps for this long.

Yes, there are undoubtedly organizational elements within the Pentagon, State Department and CIA that are opposed to Trump’s approach to public policy-making and decisional outcomes. And I’m sure they are all trying to make their presence felt internally.

But, it is most assuredly Trump who determines whether or not each of these bureaucratic entities has any influence or impact, rather than some fictional notion of an all-powerful Deep State.

To those who subscribe to the 17th letter of the alphabet, stop worrying about the mysterious Deep State and remember that it is Trump himself who is his own worst enemy.

Peter McKenna is professor and chair of political science at the University of Prince Edward Island in Charlottetown.