It really is
an upside down world when I am posting a Bret Stephens column. As a political
junkie, the world has titled off its axis a little too much for comfort. It is
indeed, a lopsided world for many of us.
But as the
Turkish example reminds us, whatever else exists in Washington, it isn’t a deep
state. When Mr. Trump demanded the resignations of 46 U.S. attorneys, they all
left, except for Manhattan’s Preet Bharara, who asked for a firing and got it.
The CIA is run by a Trump appointee, and the only generals in charge of federal
departments are the ones the president nominated to their positions. The GOP
establishment has rolled over for the new president. As for the “corporatist,
globalist media” that Steve Bannon rails against, it also includes Fox News. This
is paranoid time. Specifically, we are again in territory best identified by
Richard Hofstadter in “The Paranoid Style in American Politics.” The paranoid
style can be evidence of irrationalism bordering on mental illness. It can also
be a form of a cunning instrumentalism to destroy your political opponents by
stoking hysterical fears in your supporters. Turkish President Recep Tayyip
Erdogan is a master of the latter method. What about Mr. Trump? Conservatives
used to understand the ideological provenance of words and the consequences
that flow from treating political differences as mortal threats to the state.
Too bad too many intelligent conservatives gave up worrying about the use of
language sometime last year. They will come to regret what they’ve allowed,
perhaps only when they, too, become its victims. ~Conservative Opinion Writer
Bret Stephens
https://www.wsj.com/articles/deep-states-and-demagogues-1489446006
