Mark Jacob: It's not the 'deep state' - it's the deep dedication of public servants

https://www.stopthepresses.news/p/its-not-the-deep-state-its-the-deep

During a brutal week when President-elect Donald Trump announced the selection of outrageously corrupt Republicans as Cabinet members, this New York Times headline set me off:

Trump Takes on the Pillars
of the 'Deep State'

The nation’s most prominent newspaper adopted the language of right-wing propaganda. Maybe the Times told itself that those quote marks around “deep state” made it OK. They didn’t. This was the Times helping the right depict the federal workforce as a cabal of devious ideologues scheming to steal our freedom when – in fact – these workers are keeping prescription drugs from killing us, prosecuting sex traffickers, warning us about hurricanes and helping us recover from those hurricanes after they occur.

When you see who pushes the “deep state” myth, it’s clear what they want: a country in which corporate and political corruption can run wild, unimpeded by dedicated professionals acting in the public interest.

Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy’s “Department of Government Efficiency” threatens to produce the opposite of efficiency – an intentional incompetence in which experts are banished, vital services are abandoned and only lackeys are left.

The Project 2025 right-wing blueprint, which Trump disavowed even though it was written by his supporters, calls for a direct attack on a nonpartisan federal workforce. It features a “personnel database” where partisan hacks can get in line to become taxpayer-supported partisan hacks. Trump’s own official Agenda 47 promises to “clean out the Deep State” with an executive order asserting “the president’s authority to fire rogue bureaucrats.”

*snip*