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Culture War Roundup for the week of August 28, 2023

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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.

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.