A Social Divide

For John, BLUF:  A big threat to democracy is the belief, on the part of some people, that not only do they know better, but God put them on this earth to make sure the Hoi Polloi do the "right thing".  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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A stunning confession from a Deep State member subverting the constitutional republic

From The American Thinker, by Founder and Publisher Thomas Lifson, 1 November 2019.

Here is the lede plus four:

The arrogance and lack of self-awareness among the mandarins that inhabit the top levels of our government bureaucracies has led to a smoking gun-level confession.  Rather than respecting the will of the voters who elect a president, they proudly substitute their own policy preferences and think nothing of conspiring to drive from office the person who holds legitimate authority to make policy and conduct the affairs of government.

A confession from a man who formerly ran the CIA came Wednesday at an event sponsored by a friendly organization, the Michael V. Hayden Center and Schar School of Policy and Government at George Mason University.  Former CIA Acting Director John McLaughlin was among friends who share the same seditious outlook, speaking on a panel discussion, with CIA Director John Brennan, former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe, and former CIA Deputy Director Michael Morell.  With everyone sharing the same assumptions, McLaughlin apparently let down his guard and committed a “Kinsley gaffe” – accidentally telling the incriminating truth.

Chuck Ross of the Daily Caller describes what I call his confession, responding to a question from the moderator:

“There is something unique you have to agree that now the impeachment inquiry is underway, sparked by a complaint from someone within the intelligence community, it feeds the president’s concern, an often used term about a ‘deep state’ being there to take him out,” Margaret Brennan, the moderator for the event, asked McLaughlin.

“Thank God for the ‘deep state,'” replied the former spook, who served as acting director at the CIA in 2004.

I would like to think he was joking, but, per the article, he then went on to double down.

There is the possibility that the Government Bureaucrats have gone from Public Servants to active players within the corridors of power.  This isn't new, but the number of self-righteous have heretofore been limited.  I remember an incident where an effort to better understand Intelligence Community strategic warning was leaked to The Washington Post as a reprise of Ms Barbara W. Tuchman's The Guns of August scenario.  It wasn't, but we did learn that the logistics side of mobilization planning has already presumed away any benefit of strategic warning by their assumptions about time for preparations.  The thing I personally learned was that it is easy for a leak to the Press to implicate the wrong person and wrongly harm their work effort.

May God spare us from the self-righteous and restore our Democracy.

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff