The deep state is no myth but a sodden, intertwined mass of bloated, self-replicating bureaucracy that constitutes the real power in Washington and that stubbornly outlasts every administration. As government programs have incrementally multiplied, so has their regulatory apparatus, with its intrusive byzantine minutiae. Recently tagged as a source of anti-Trump conspiracy among embedded Democrats, the deep state is probably equally populated by Republicans and apolitical functionaries of Bartleby the Scrivener blandness. Its spreading sclerotic mass is wasteful, redundant, and ultimately tyrannical.
I have been trying for decades to get my fellow Democrats to realize how unchecked bureaucracy, in government or academe, is inherently authoritarian and illiberal. A persistent characteristic of civilizations in decline throughout history has been their self-strangling by slow, swollen, and stupid bureaucracies. The current atrocity of crippling student debt in the US is a direct product of an unholy alliance between college administrations and federal bureaucrats — a scandal that ballooned over two decades with barely a word of protest from our putative academic leftists, lost in their post-structuralist fantasies. Political correctness was not created by administrators, but it is ever-expanding campus bureaucracies that have constructed and currently enforce the oppressively rule-ridden regime of college life.
In the modern world, so wondrously but perilously interconnected, a principle of periodic reduction of bureaucracy should be built into every social organism. Freedom cannot survive otherwise...................
Camille Paglia liberal and feminist icon .

Tom what you are speaking of is the public service, the servants of government, the permanent government if you like, but I'm curious


I have been trying for decades to get my fellow Democrats

Does this mean you are a closet democrat representing yourself here as a conservative

did you not read the last line ?

The worse type of tyranny is the benevolent ones."
unchecked bureaucracy, in government or academe, is inherently authoritarian and illiberal. "
We did not have such a permanent government when the size of government was manageable before the Leviathan . I don't consider government service as a permanent career or servants who ignore policy and work to their own agenda and interests in opposition to the elected branches ."
stubbornly outlasts every administration".
I think it should be more like Cincinnatus ;someone who leaves their profession in a call to service ,and serves for a temporary period of time before returning to their profession .
Paglia is right on in her observation .

Well maybe she is right, but what you are really saying is the democratic process has failed, just sham and shadow but that democrats should recognise this and speak against it where they use it speaks of tyranny

I can see strict scrutiny, but booting a good worker for fear and politicking seems a step to far on allegations and opinions. The government shouldn't be run like a fast food business with high turnovers or even regular ones. That's asking for chaos should such a thing be implemented in the name of freedom by the small government crowd.

For my 2 cents you would need a much greater consensus on that kind of change.

She doesnt call for high turnover ; just a '
periodic reduction of bureaucracy'. Laws too often become permanent and entrenched without review . Sunset them all. The same is true of regulations and the need for administrators .

Who besides the congress would decide all this?

I got a couple of amendments in mind . But until such time Congress should sunset every law they pass . The executive has the power and discretion to trim the
bureaucracy through the enforcement process .Just don't fill the positions .

Well that's a bit broad, and this exec already isn't filling positions.

Not filling positions doesn't get rid of deep state which after all are those who have tenure and have been there forever, and of course this goes for reps and senators who you can never get rid of. Every position should have a sunset clause on it, maximum term that is the way to stop the rot

So the deep state runs everything and makes laws and policies? LOL, blaming the everyday people for the actions of the ruling class seems like a dodge to me. Smells of conspiracy theories and excuses. Stop electing Dufus's and sycophants would get us better laws and policies. The deep state didn't get us tax cuts for the rich, or take resources and options from the rest of us.

Just pull the sheet over your head and it will all pass you by

I would prefer to deal with the issue at hand. I'm waiting for the argument that those long time government employees have an agenda that goes against the rule of law. Not saying incompetents should not be let go, just I give second thoughts to letting experienced competent employees go for some ideological litmus test.

Oh well you have deep pockets then

Jerry Pournelle’s Iron Law of Bureaucracy states that a bureaucracy’s principle concern is to grow.
He states that in any bureaucratic organization there will be two kinds of people":
First, there will be those who are devoted to the goals of the organization. Examples are dedicated classroom teachers in an educational bureaucracy, many of the engineers and launch technicians and scientists at NASA, even some agricultural scientists and advisors in the former Soviet Union collective farming administration.
Secondly, there will be those dedicated to the organization itself. Examples are many of the administrators in the education system, many professors of education, many teachers union officials, much of the NASA headquarters staff, etc.

The Iron Law states that in every case the second group will gain and keep control of the organization. It will write the rules, and control promotions within the organization.
This rule of thumb applies equally to government bureaucracies, corporations and other private organizations.
His blog, "The View from Chaos Manor", referenced examples of the law. One of Pournelle's standard themes was that the welfare states become self-perpetuating.

Perpetuation of the welfare state has a lot of help from government policy for sure.