It’s not the ‘deep state’ – it’s the deep dedication of public servants

“Bureaucracy” isn’t a dirty word. In fact, it might help us resist Trump’s corruption.

During a brutal week when President-elect Donald Trump announced the selection of outrageously corrupt Republicans as Cabinet members, this New York Times headline set me off:

The nation’s most prominent newspaper adopted the language of right-wing propaganda. Maybe the Times told itself that those quote marks around “deep state” made it OK. They didn’t. This was the Times helping the right depict the federal workforce as a cabal of devious ideologues scheming to steal our freedom when – in fact – these workers are keeping prescription drugs from killing us, prosecuting sex traffickers, warning us about hurricanes and helping us recover from those hurricanes after they occur.

When you see who pushes the “deep state” myth, it’s clear what they want: a country in which corporate and political corruption can run wild, unimpeded by dedicated professionals acting in the public interest.

Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy’s “Department of Government Efficiency” threatens to produce the opposite of efficiency – an intentional incompetence in which experts are banished, vital services are abandoned and only lackeys are left. 

The Project 2025 right-wing blueprint, which Trump disavowed even though it was written by his supporters, calls for a direct attack on a nonpartisan federal workforce. It features a “personnel database” where partisan hacks can get in line to become taxpayer-supported partisan hacks. Trump’s own official Agenda 47 promises to “clean out the Deep State” with an executive order asserting “the president’s authority to fire rogue bureaucrats.”

“Rogue bureaucrats” means people who are not loyal to Trump. We face the prospect of an ideological test for jobs that were previously merit-based. If it sounds a lot like the Soviet Union, that’s because it would be a lot like the Soviet Union.

We’re about to see an assault on the civil service system, which was created to build a more professional workforce and to prevent politicians from using public employees as their personal patronage army. Trump wants the entire apparatus of government to be beholden to him. He wants to be king.

One of the ugliest aspects of this planned power grab is the suggestion that federal workers have been running some sort of scam on the American public. Michael Lewis, best known as the author of “Moneyball” and “The Big Short,” wrote a 2018 book called “The Fifth Risk” that highlighted the important contributions of federal employees. I strongly recommend it.

Even as right-wing demagogues demonize civil servants, they demand their help. A classic example of this hypocrisy came in early 2023. Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders tweeted:

Less than three months later, deadly tornadoes swept the state, and Sanders demanded that the “meddling hand” reach across the Mississippi River and help with the recovery. She even had the chutzpah to demand that the feds pick up 100% of the costs instead of 75%.

A more recent weather disaster also showed how the right disrespects the very people trying to help their constituents. After Hurricane Helene ravaged western North Carolina last month, Trump claimed that Federal Emergency Management Agency resources were diverted to help undocumented immigrants. That was a disgusting lie that fomented right-wing anger toward FEMA and made the recovery harder. A few weeks later when Hurricane Milton hit Florida, a FEMA official told relief workers to avoid homes with Trump signs, later explaining that she feared MAGA followers would be hostile to her staff. She was fired.

I point out the Florida incident to acknowledge that delivery of government services is often challenging and rarely comes off without complications. But the vast majority of federal workers are successfully performing important jobs for the public. Yet in the slash-and-burn mentality of the incoming Trump regime, federal services are in the crosshairs. For example, Project 2025 calls for the end of the National Weather Service’s free forecasts, saying the agency “should fully commercialize its forecasting operations.”

A key part of the fascist attack on democracy is manufacturing dissatisfaction. Unfortunately, that fits in well with the outlook of some journalists that good news is no news. Why else do we hear so little about the amazing fact that there hasn’t been a fatal commercial airline crash in the U.S. since 2009? That’s thanks in large part to efficient government actions by dedicated public employees. 

Some people think “bureaucrats” is an insulting term, but I don’t. In fact, one of my heroes of American history was a bespectacled bureaucrat named Louis Post.

In 1920, just a few years after Russia’s Bolshevik Revolution, the United States was swept by a red scare. Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer and an ambitious young law enforcement official named J. Edgar Hoover arrested thousands of suspected radicals, often without warrants. They targeted 1,600 supposed radicals for deportation. Louis Post, an assistant Labor secretary, saw the Palmer raids as civil rights violations, and he fought back with paperwork. Post refused to sign off on deportations, leaving Palmer and Hoover stymied. Their allies tried to impeach Post but failed. Eventually, public sentiment shifted and the crackdown ended.  

Yes, paper pushers can be patriots.

And that kind of resistance may be needed again if Trump abuses his power. Our federal workers are used to making things work, but in these desperate times they may need to do the opposite. They may need to find creative ways to slow down Trump’s corrupt and cruel actions, to bury them in bureaucracy, for the good of the country.

Meanwhile, the media must stop buying into the right wing’s “deep state” rhetoric and worry more about the deepest state – a dictatorship.