Commentary: Yes, Virginia, there is a Deep State
A Trump supporter’s worst nightmare, the Deep State, does exist. But it’s not trying to get rid of President Trump. It’s trying to keep him in power. And it’s not a conspiracy. It’s a consensus. And it’s winning.
There’s no other way to explain people like Attorney General William Barr, former White House Counsel Don McGahn and former Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein. They’re keeping Trump in power because he’s useful. He’s useful because he’s incompetent. This opens the door wide for them to get their work done without interference.
Trump’s ghost-writer in the 1990s, Charles Leersen, said that when Trump was losing oceans of money, he spent most of his time in his office selecting fabric swatches for his properties. Today, he is reported to be deeply involved in the fireworks display for Fourth of July celebrations.
Barr, McGahn and Rosenstein don’t appear to believe in democracy where the people decide what is good for them. They believe in a republic where wiser heads decide what is good for the people. Barr, McGahn and Rosenstein never talk about what they’re doing or why. They don’t have to. They know what’s good for us and talking about it only makes the job harder.
Because they seldom say anything to the public at large, thousands of hours of media time has been consumed by trying to figure out what they’re doing and why. Are these intelligent people Trump sycophants? No. They’re just quietly going about the work of making sure that people like them, people who understand right from wrong, are holding real power.
McGahn has made sure that the “right people” are in charge in the Supreme Court. Once the balance of power had firmly shifted away from dangerous people like Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, he moved on to more lucrative pastures.
The same thing has happened with Rosenstein. Progressive Democrats were incensed when Hillary Clinton — who, after a lifetime in government, was finally one of the right people — snatched the nomination from a wild-eyed progressive. Rosenstein wrote that FBI Director James Comey should be fired because he interfered with Hillary’s election, not because Trump didn’t like him.
Barr seems to be quite content for people to be hypnotized by Trump’s White House reality show. Lawyers on news programs protest, “Surely Barr knows that what he is saying makes no legal sense.”
Yes. He does. But it keeps the public occupied. And it makes Trump very happy so he doesn’t interfere.
As a politician, Sen. Lindsey Graham is required to talk to the public. He can’t tell constituents to sit down and shut up. So he simply lies. It works for Trump and it works for Graham, too.
If they were ever willing to talk about their real opinion of Trump, Barr, McGahn and Rosenstein would probably say things just as bad as Democrats. But in their view, it just reinforces their conviction that government is too important to be left in the hands of the people.
After all, they elected Trump.
Dan Mabbutt graduated as an electrical engineer from the University of Utah and retired from a career in data processing in Salt Lake City. He now lives in the Zion National Park gateway town of Springdale.
from The Salt Lake Tribune http://bit.ly/2HtLugZ
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