Oh stop it WSJ. Of course you guys are in on the corruption too. The civil service is a small part of the "deep state" that extends to all of the NGOs, consultancies and private "support service contractors" in the DC area. It includes all the folks in the "private sector" who earn a very good keep "assisting" 3rd world countries with applying for World Bank loans they will never be able to repay. It includes all the "beltway bandits" providing viewgraphs for pentagon officials trying to flog to other pentagon officials some new scheme for fleacing the taxpayer for some new defense project. It includes K-street of course, but hey those guys are at least honest whore who actually have to provide their paymasters value for money. It's the guy who consults for folks on "internet policy" or the gal who specializes in aranging poverty or AIDs tours to Africa for "fact-fiding"
The DC deepstate are the 96% in DC who voted against Trump and their counterparts in the surrounding mansion inflated "bedroom" communities.
Yes the upper level civil service are certainly part of it. But all they get out of it is a barely adequate by DC standars paycheck - admittedly for a job not worth doing at that requires no real skills.
Sounds like they are willing to sacrifice pay for deep state membership. At least they get fantastic health care!!
Yes, it is as broad as you posit. It is the entirety of the permanent non-elected global government workforce that subverts free people and the officials they elected.
The vast array of “deep state” actors you listed is worrisome. Of those, the most worrisome of all is the “Intelligence Community” (which you did not list) because of the vast clandestine power they have to oppose a constitutionally and freely elected government.
About one hundred years ago, government slipped the noose that constrained it to realistic size and it escaped the enumerated powers of the Constitution that had held it somewhat in check for 125 years. The whole edifice is corrupt and, far worse, is toxic to a free people. Putting the leash back onto this escaped leviathan is an almost impossible task and President Trump is to be applauded for attempting to do that.
The growth of the government’s deep state power is in direct proportion to the taxes it collects and the deficits it runs. I am very disappointed that President Trump has not made it a priority to balance the budget. That would be a first realistic step at putting some constraints on the government. If he does not constrain government spending somehow, all that deficit spending buys more Deep State enemies of Trump and freedom. The only way to begin to corral the beast is to cut off its mother’s milk, i.e., its money.
But none of these people would make any money, if not for the Deep State bureaucrats approving their contracts and grants. Putting a leash on the bureaucracy is key.