Our Constitution Vs. the Deep State Run by Intelligence Agencies and the Pentagon — Only One Will Survive

It is virtually impossible to read a newspaper or a blog analyzing the politics of America in 2017 without thinking "disaster." Since Donald Trump became president not just the United States, but the world, has become unstable and liberal democracies in general are under assault by antidemocratic authoritarian forces. In fact, a growing number of heretofore optimistic writers are worrying out loud about not only the end of America but the entire product of the Enlightenment: western civilization as a whole.
This dire commentary cannot be the result of one man. And, in fact, there is an accompanying system of organizations, individuals, traditions and practices over a long period that have worked together to bring us to this point. This "administrative state" is what is often referred to as the Deep State: all the permanent institutions of government, once augmented but now in most cases captured (or at least powerfully influenced) by private, for-profit corporations, from defense to intelligence to science.
Still the chief executive, or president, has historically been our symbol of national unity, and Americans have been accustomed for over two hundred years to placing enormous trust in his judgment.
It was not always so, particularly at the founding of our nation.
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Comments


Powerful. Your concise and blunt assessment of the wider reality beyond the comfortable niches of our everyday lives is like taking the red pill in "The Matrix." It threatens all that we hold dear, all that we know and believe and hope:
Morpheus: "This is your last chance. After this, there is no turning back. You take the blue pill - the story ends, you wake up in your bed and believe whatever you want to believe. You take the red pill - you stay in Wonderland and I show you how deep the rabbit hole goes."
Once all ideological evasions have been exhausted, that's the stark choice laid bare before us. We must each ask ourselves: Do we seek the truth, no matter how difficult, or do we seek the comfort of our fantasies?
Full spectrum dominance, both domestically and globally, and the death of democracy, as you have described, are the predictable and inevitable outcomes of extreme wealth and power concentrated in ever tightening circles of influence in markets, in governance, and in media. This in turn is the predictable and inevitable consequence of heavily conditioned complacency, escapism, and willful ignorance. A citizenry in compliance is the flip side of fascism.
Yesterday's Whitehouse giddy party over their vote to overturn Obamacare. For a huge tax cut for the wealthy. At the cost of health insurance for 24 million. Should open eyes as to what is going on. The day before it was voted to take away overtime pay for blue collar workers in trade for compensation time at the corporations disgression. Next will be tax reform where they can do the most underhanded damage. Trump's 1 page tax plan gives an idea how much they will hide. It is up to the Democrats in the Senate to stop this carnage.

the deep state elephant in the room has been tax code changes we've seen in the last four decades, that have allowed breathtaking wealth accumulations in a very short time. there will be no movement on the deep state issue until thom hartmann's message and historical context are made to appear in the main stream. but how does that happen with a media controlled by oligarchs? movies did the trick in world war two, can hollywood help the nation now with even greater emphasis on movies about american colonial history, modern despotism, morality plays about puppet congresses, or perhaps the well worn academic path last trodden by orwell?

Thank you gmiklashk950 for your fine comment. I agree completely. The only difference I have is that you are way to nice to the Right-wing Republicans they should have been crushed 40 years ago and if they raise their head 1inch off of the ground they should be crushed again. You don't work or reason or talk or use humanitarian reasons with right-wing Republicans you crush them it is the only thing that they understand.
What Thom has so elegantly described is a total fascist government. It has been under construction since WWII, with the expansion of every aspect of the military industrial complex, global expansion of the deregulated financial system based in the US, further integration of educational and religious institutions, as well as the media, and the various aspects of the police state, into one whole. The general public has little awareness of the homogeneous nature of this beast and its ability, now, to reach into and control every nook and cranny of a once great democractic republic. The nationalistic, anti-immigrant, anti-intellectual, pro-endless war, and massively militaristic compnents should be more obvious to one and all, but we remain blind to the reality of this momentous transformation. We live in a constant state of denial now. Pass the booze and Soma, 1984 has come and gone, both chronologically and metaphorically. Now, only our incompleted lack of world domination prevents us from heading up the world-wide fascist take-over that global capitalism has dreamed of. The noose just keeps tightening. Trouble breathing? Too late.