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A motte for the term: The deep state
Without endorsing any particular theories here, perhaps the best way to think about the deep state is that it is simply parts of the government that have developed their own distinct political goals and capabilities, and are involved in the political process in ways that may or may not be visible, legal or proper. In some vague sense, a "deep state" may simply be a function of a government. Any government that remains stable for long enough will develop capabilities that do not require a given person at the top, since the leaders change over time. Those abilities will then be put to use in service of whatever political goals unite that part of government.
This becomes more open and more contentious in a democracy when parts of the government revolt against elected leaders.
Conservatives are trapped in a cycle. The more ‘free market’ a society is, the more money is central to status, the more opportunity the private sector offers smart capitalists over the public sector, the more leftist the civil service will be.
The civil service and academia in WEIRD countries trend inexorably to the left. Even if guaranteed not to be cancelled, few smart and ambitious young rightists would want to join the academy or spend 40 years in the education department. In America this problem is even more significant for cultural reasons.The ‘rugged individualism’, the ‘wild west’ spirit, the settler mentality, homestead aesthetic, whatever you want to call it - conservative US culture is anathema to working for the state except in the police or military, or possibly in some cases as a tough on crime DA or in the judiciary (in the latter case only to stop the left and be tough on crime though).
To be very smart and become a civil servant in the US, you essentially need to be either hereditarily very rich (a small minority of people who mostly do other things), or you need to believe that participating in the ‘capitalist economy’ is somewhat unethical, grubby, dirty, immoral. Not that you need to be some kind of staunch Marxist, but you usually need to be the kind of person who thinks that “billionaires are immoral” or whatever. Almost all these people are progressives, because smart, well educated PMC conservatives and libertarians go into the private sector.
In parts of Europe there once existed a patrician/noble conservative class who considered commerce to be 'common', but these never really existed in great numbers in the US and have mostly died out in Europe anyway.
The best thing the right could do would be to replace the civil service with McKinsey or Bain. Not because those organizations aren’t riddled with DEI and ESG (they obviously are), but because ultimately they are governed by and respond to financial incentives. They have clear hierarchies. People can be fired easily. Partners, above all else, want to make money. And so they’ll respond to instructions, even if they consider them vulgar.
I think the clear answer is simply to convert every single government position from civil service to political appointee. This gives presidents and victorious politicians at all levels a clear way to reward their supporters, and ensures the alignment of everyone from dog-catcher through park ranger through under-sub-secretary's assistant for automotive regulation are on board with the agenda.
So you’re proposing recreating the mid-century Chicago political machine, but on a national level.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicago-style_politics
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_machine
There…are a few issues with that concept.
But the issues we have with the deep state are huge as well. Essentially, they’re almost completely unaccountable to anyone, nothing they do can be effectively controlled by the regime (the official government) and this creates a situation where the regime has little control over anything that the deep state does.
Just for a quick example, Affirmative Action is officially illegal in California. The public university system simply fig-leafs compliance and does Affirmative Action anyway. They just do so by using other things that just so happen to be good markers for race. If you’re a minority, you’ll get a boost (unless you’re Asian) despite the fact that this is illegal. The same thing is going to happen on the federal level where AA is officially over, but since we’re using proxy methods of finding and boosting the scores of minorities. Even somewhat with COVID, it was clear that the health departments were not under the control of any elected official. The elected officials wanted it over, and the deep state said no.
This creates a situation where the government is officially supposed to serve the public, but those who determine what the state does aren’t accountable to that portion of the government that the public has a say in.
A lot of Federal agencies aren't supposed to be accountable to the regime. This is by design. Something like the Clean Air Act isn't supposed to change based on who's in office, and the fact that it requires an independent agency to hammer out details and enforce the law doesn't change that. The president may have certain powers relating to the agency, but these are purely administrative in nature. The constitution isn't set up so that the president gets to dictate domestic policy. And while it may seem like they're unaccountable, this isn't the case at all. They're creatures of legislation, and legislation can take whatever powers they have away, or change the law to undo rulemaking decisions it doesn't like. Not to mention the complicated rulemaking procedures they have to follow. People often argue that since the legislative branch is dysfunctional this isn't really a great check on power, and while I agree, I think the solution is to end the dysfunction, not to concentrate power further. After all, we could take this argument a step further and eliminate congress entirely and let the president make up laws at his leisure. But I don't think anyone wants that.
The irony is a big thing that could end the dysfunction is to end the filibuster, and actually pass legislation.
Now yes, this would lead to some things this forum would not like passed. Also, it wouldn't lead to say the Civil Rights Act getting overturned, because it turns out a Senator who can get elected in say, Georgia or Arizona probably doesn't want to actually do that, or fill in whatever other right-wing promise numerous swing state Senator's have made, but would never actually vote for, because they like their job.
Ironically, the filibuster currently gives the Right an overstated case of their actual political strength, because if you're a Republican Senator in a swing state, you can agree to all sorts of things in a primary, knowing voters don't really care until you actually vote for something/it gets put into law (ie. the Dobbs effect), and they know you need 60 votes to pass anything not directly related to spending.
I say this thing to my left-wing friends as well, as a dirty left-wing social democrat SJW - your issue isn't the system. Your issue is that nobody actually agrees with you because life in America is actually pretty damn good for the vast majority of people, and well yeah, they may complain about [random right-friendly or left-friendly issue], but they're not going to vote for somebody who wants to overturn the whole damn thing. Now, I know, "but a small minority of woke people control society."
Not really true, but also, most people may think going to a DEI training (even though, again, your company having a DEI training is kind of a tell on your educated background) may be a bit over the top, but they also don't think the world is ending as a result of a couple hour training they go too once or twice a year. So, when you act like it is, most normies go, "you're a weirdo, and if the choice is you or the nice lady in charge of DEI training, I'll go with her."
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No, I'm proposing a spoils system.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spoils_system
Machine politics are fine and dandy as well though. Ethnic voting blocs are sensible.
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