The Deep State.

Another book recommended to me and a few priors.

The deep state is absolutely real—and Trump is commonly aiding some, though not all, of its worst elements.

Other elements of the deep state oppose Trump, though it’s not necessarily because they are heroic patriots. Often they’re just trying to protect their own turf, which indeed is threatened.

Their opposition may or may not be entirely legal and appropriate, though my sense is that these questions are usually just proxies for whatever a given author happens to think about Trump. Because it joins so many different things of different moral valences, the “deep state” is what Ayn Rand termed an anti-concept. Using it makes thinking harder rather than easier.

Such are my priors, anyway. Now to wear them lightly as I read.