John Smith wrote on Dec 2
nd, 2024 at 5:13pm:
But by labeling them collectively as 'deep state', you imply that is some sort of secret club where members plot to destroy there govt. That
does not
exist. Self serving arseholes exist, they exist in every facet of life, not just government.
'Deep state' is a direct translation from Turkish derin devlet, referring to covert military and civilian organisations created to preserve Ataturk's secular Turkey.
It has come to refer to covert groups that operate independently of a national government (democratic or not) to thwart or subvert that government’s will -
not, in the US or Australian context, to collapse the state or overthrow the government.These covert groups can be components of the public service, military, security agencies, religious groups, business corporations, ethnic or political separatists, &etc.
Famously, Eisenhower warned of it in the US with his industrial-military complex speech. Kennedy went to ‘war’ with the CIA, which he claimed was operating beyond the authority of the president and Congress. Johnson blamed the Civil Rights movement for undermining support for the Vietnam War. With Nixon, it was the counter-culture movement and anti-administration forces aligned against him. Reagan claimed military personnel were responsible for the Iran-Contra affair.
Trump, regarding his first administration, amazingly, and almost accidentally, blamed himself for ‘hiring the wrong people’ thus creating deep state ‘cabals’ operating - up to and including, at cabinet level! Hence his current obsession and paranoia over his senior picks. Whatever, no nation anywhere can claim to be free of a deep state – they are, primarily, covert (so their existence is often unconfirmed, unproven, merely presumed, or exist only in the mind of the head of state/government).
Ultimately, though—given that no government has ever ruled with a mandate of 100% of the people (in democratic countries, they govern usually with not much more than 50% approval and often less)—at least some organised resistance to the government’s will is likely and ineradicable.