Source: Religion Dispatches
We don't need that chilling Steve Bannon interview or more breathless
reporting about the Heritage Foundation's 2025 Project to know that the Hard Right
has an obsession with what it calls the Deep State. Depending on the slant of
the particular panjandrum who is ranting at any one time, it can mean either a
particular set of administrative powers or a bunch of "liberal
elites" who all know each other and are in cahoots to oppress so-called
"real Americans," or both at once. Whatever it is, it's presented as
an evil that's got to be washed away in the coming red tide of MAGA revolution.
Such
talk about an oppressive Deep State plays well. It suits the paranoid style that Richard Hofstadter long
ago identified as a key hallmark of U.S. politics. Poll after poll confirms how
sensitized most white Americans are to the idea that government at every level
is both heavy-handed and incompetent at what it does. It now seems, in fact,
that the surges of public approval for government interventions that occurred
during the Progressive and New Deal periods were exceptions to the rule,
brought about by widespread perception of truly egregious abuses by the rich
and powerful. Because that is the other, albeit often hidden, face of power in
America: the power of great wealth and the vast and growing privileges enjoyed
by private corporations.
My
answer is that the real Deep State, comprising the aggregated
infrastructure of the varied instrumentalities deployed by wealth, enjoys
multiple advantages in the ideological contest and has pressed those advantages
to the limit. Wealth also continues to win by being ever mindful of the danger
of exposure and ever adept at avoiding it, especially now that top tier's share
of total national wealth is higher than ever before: higher, even, than at
the pre-Crash height of 1929.
Another
way to approach this: monopoly capitalism's successful onward march depends on
maximum ideological conformity and the mental subjugation of a significant
majority of the people. Capitalism's often wrenching permutations require
somnolence and passivity on the part of those who might otherwise be asking
sharp questions. Here, the adumbration and repetition of reassuring formulas have
always been helpful to economic elites. It is for this reason that we hear the
many mellow minions of the overclass doling out comforting mantras and memes
like "choice," "innovation," "flexibility," and
(that old reliable) "opportunity" in hopes of obscuring the realities
of isolation, intimidation, competition, and (that old reliable) exploitation.
Deployment
of the well-worn catchphrase "America: Land of Opportunity" has
exceeded expectations on these shores, just as "England: A Nation of
Shopkeepers" used to succeed brilliantly across the
water, before most Britons rejected it as a Tory-propagated myth. Here in the
States, it hardly matters that social mobility is now practically non-existent; our capitalists
understand that what matters is what people believe—and chanting
about "opportunity" still solidifies belief.
Admittedly,
U.S. capitalism enjoys special advantages in gaining widespread social
acceptance, even social adoration. As I have discussed elsewhere, a very significant part
of ostensibly "Christian" belief here has long consisted of adherence
to the Gospel of Wealth. As early as the 1830s, foreign observers (Tocqueville,
Crevecoeur, Dickens, and others) could see that the American self-declared
passion for democratic ways was exceeded only by the demonstrable American
passion for making money. These same observers could also see that racism and
white supremacy made a mockery of the white people's democratic pretensions.
Captains of industry and titans of finance have always been able to float their yachts, in part by cleverly parlaying the wages of whiteness and persuading the bulk of the people they exploit that they should be grateful to at least enjoy white skin privilege. More broadly, a strong argument can be made to the effect that U.S. capitalism's capacity to maintain ongoing loyalty and social control hinges very significantly on its capacity to sustain the White Way of Thinking, a whole complex of white fears, inhibitions, and willed ignorance.
It
certainly seems to be working out that way. The massive offshoring of work
taking place from the 1970s onward meant that efforts to change the
subject—from naked corporate piracy to alleged threats to "traditional
values" and white identity—would need to go into overdrive, which they
did. Alpha predators, whose paychecks and dividends would soar from the
hollowing out of American manufacturing, showed themselves fully able to meet
this challenge. They did much more than change the subject by manipulating
white anxieties and fomenting culture wars, however. The oft-recycled Thomas
Frank and George Packer accounts of conservative dominance fail to do justice
to the full extent and range of the strategic ideological advances achieved by
a corporate-bankrolled conservative onslaught during these crucial years.
The
last quarter of the 20th century saw the true Deep State—the Corporate
State—achieve major new gains on five crucial fronts, all of which have served
to reinforce pro-capitalist ideation while suppressing anti-capitalist ideation
and thus blunting small "d" democratic organizing:
1.
Corporate interests effectively captured a
second national political party. The "Republican-lite" achievements
of Democratic neoliberals—welfare "reform," financial
deregulation, NAFTA and the WTO, the beginnings of "liberal" school
privatization schemes, etc.—all illustrate the point. Today's mainstream
Democratic politics continue to lean pro-corporate by many measures.
2.
Corporate interests effectively established a
very large footprint in intellectual life and public discourse through shrewd
investments in think tanks, academic institutes, publications, and mass
media. What had once been seen as risible and contemptible winner-take-all
policies and practices gained intellectual respectability. Whereas once there
was only the Chamber of Commerce and the National Association of Manufacturers,
suddenly there were dozens and dozens of well-paid academics, writers, policy
wonks, and televised talking heads willing to do the bidding of the overclass
and even being propelled into the overclass through these
enabling efforts. And this discursive triumph doesn't even include the
cultivation and deployment of phalanxes of conservative pro-capitalist jurists:
another huge gain for the overclass.
3.
Corporate interests, working through their
political and propaganda agents, effectively sabotaged a range of public goods:
public health, public schools, public transportation, public utilities, public
recreational spaces, etc., in such a way as to severely shake public confidence
in these goods and services. If "sabotage" strikes you as too strong
a term, you can consult case studies showing exactly how it happened in each of
these areas. Cut taxes; degrade and strangle public services; then use your
propaganda tools—e.g., the bombastic rhetoric of the Ronald Reagans and the
Rush Limbaughs—to discredit government to the maximum extent possible. Works
every time.
4.
Corporate interests effectively created a new
class of "junior owners"—relatively small-time
investors—by promoting individual retirement schemes while disparaging and
undermining collective benefit programs like Social Security. If I had to name
the principal single source of white liberal somnolence, even complicity, in
relation to the corporate takeover of the commons, I would probably cite the
effectiveness of convincing so many people to check their retirement accounts
every day, paying more attention to Wall Street than to Main Street.
5.
Corporate interests effectively spawned a
wholly new culture of misinformation and distraction
that makes marshaling organized opposition to the rule of wealth vastly harder.
Here, of course, I speak of the growth of so-called social media vehicles,
which quickly became sites of manipulation rather than liberation. The lords of
Silicon Valley even managed to convince people that they—the lords—weren't
really capitalists at all: they were merely cool dudes doing neat things in
their garages. Only now, as AI's horrors come crashing down on our heads, are
we waking up to the reality that an Eric Schmidt or a Mark Zuckerberg are
really no different than a Jay Gould or a John D. Rockefeller.
These
and other turns of the corporate screw may sometimes make it seem that
resistance is futile. But here's the thing: overreach and arrogance do
eventually get recognized and exposed. Forcing people to sign non-disclosure
and non-compete agreements will eventually be seen for the bullying it really
is. Bribing legislatures and buying votes to stop contingent workers from
organizing and achieving a living wage is an ugly business that is hard to
conceal completely. The overclass can buy and control some of the academic
establishment and a good share of the mediascape, but never quite all of it.
Constantly playing the white identity card and stoking new culture wars will
finally be seen as the cheap mug's game that it is.
Awakening
from our overlord-induced slumber isn't a sure thing, of course, but I believe
it is a likely thing as long as enough of us keep ringing
alarm bells and building the kinds of communities and networks where real talk
can take place and real change can be incubated. A sclerotic and
wealthy-white-tilted political system will remain a formidable obstacle, as
will the ongoing ideological grip of a corrosive and capitalism-friendly
individualism. But maybe—just maybe—the return of a certified reckless
demagogue—and/or a massive economic collapse—will help to expose the entire
system's utter corruption.
The
grave dangers that would accompany either scenario cannot be overstated. But if
we have to endure turmoil and suffering, we should be prepared to make the most
of the opportunities we are given. And this time, when we see our opening, we
can and must push on for what W.E.B. DuBois aptly called "abolition democracy": a genuinely
people-centered regime that removes not just the superficial symptoms but also
the structural sources of oppression.
Just
because we have been down for a long time doesn't mean that it's game over for
our side. The mighty have fallen many times before—and often just at the point
when they smugly assumed that they had achieved total command.
May it
be so in our lifetimes—and soon.
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