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PaperclipPerfector  8mo ago (text post)   28354 thread views

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.

In some vague sense, a "deep state" may simply be a function of a government.

Not before Garfield's assassination.

Maybe it's time to repeal the Civil Service Act. According to Wikipedia it was racist anyway:

The namesake of the Pendleton Act is George H. Pendleton, an Ohio Democratic U.S. senator who defended slavery in the 1850s and led the anti-war "Copperheads" in the American Civil War opposing President Abraham Lincoln. The passage of the Pendleton Civil Service Reform Act with the aid of "Half-Breed" Republicans furthered the aims of white supremacist Democrats to curtail patronage, which had been used by "Stalwart" Republicans to socially and economically benefit blacks.

If there is a point you're making, it is hidden behind enough historical anecdote and glibness that I have no idea what it is. What are you even trying to say?

Prior to the Civil Service Act the Deep State wouldn't have been tenable. Every time the executive branch changed hands nearly everyone lost their jobs. They had probably gotten those jobs through patronage, and their replacements would be patrons of the new guy.

This is why Garfield was killed. His assassin believed he was a big enough Garfield booster that he ought to have landed one of those patronage rewarding jobs. But, he didn't.

I know, and I'm not arguing this. I'm arguing that spoils systems made for worse governance, make for worse governance, and that the people (or person, in this case) arguing for them make a damn good argument for why that's worth the cost. You cannot have your cake and eat it too; likewise, you can't insist on a system that fails continuously and handwave away its flaws with 'eh it's gonna be fine'.

I didn't make any normative statements.

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Why are you called The Motte?

A motte is a stone keep on a raised earthwork common in early medieval fortifications. More pertinently, it's an element in a rhetorical move called a "Motte-and-Bailey", originally identified by philosopher Nicholas Shackel. It describes the tendency in discourse for people to move from a controversial but high value claim to a defensible but less exciting one upon any resistance to the former. He likens this to the medieval fortification, where a desirable land (the bailey) is abandoned when in danger for the more easily defended motte. In Shackel's words, "The Motte represents the defensible but undesired propositions to which one retreats when hard pressed."

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