A lot of terms from the political fringe have made their way into the mainstream thanks to Election 2016 and the Trump administration. That’s not attempting to toss the blame on Trump, but his White House is sort of the final result of years of focus on conspiracy theories, shadow government, and political intrigue from all sides. And Samantha Bee points that out with this look at “deep state,” the latest term that has entered the mainstream like a feral, shirtless Alex Jones. Looking up the definition, you can see why using such a label is a serious thing:
A body of people, typically influential members of government agencies or the military, believed to be involved in the secret manipulation or control of government policy.
That is pretty scary stuff if you believe it. And many people do in the United States, with varying degrees of focus. Some like The Intercept point out that “deep state” are those in the intelligence community holding “unwarranted influence” that connects all the way back to Eisenhower’s warnings of the “military-industrial complex.” It’s been a long-running bogeyman for some on the left, no matter the president, and it’s been a weird moment to see it jump into the headlines in past weeks. That’s mostly due to some supporters of Trump on the Right adopting the term following a series of leaks out of the White House and intelligence agencies. At least that’s the gist of it, there’s a lot of layers to go through and a lot of confusing moving parts.
What is clear, at least from this Samantha Bee segment, is that some people think Obama is threatening a shadow White House down the road from the real joint and the holdovers from his administration are the ones leading the charge behind the scenes against Trump. That’s not even to say there isn’t a real version of the “deep state” out there. Financial bodies, spin doctors, congressional powerhouses, and intelligence officials could all be rooted deep down and running parts of the government and sacrificing people at Bohemian Grove. That’s at least more fun than some rogue Twitter account or FBI agent leaking tidbits about Trump’s bathrobe.
(Via Full Frontal)