How Deep Is The Deep State?

In a provocative exploration of bureaucratic entrenchment, Roger Kimball, writing for American Greatness, poses a enduring question: How deep is the deep state? Kimball, who has extensively pondered and documented this shadowy network of unelected power, reveals that its vastness continually defies full comprehension, expanding with each new revelation.

Kimball recently addressed the topic at The Spectator, tying it to Abigail Spanberger’s recent election as governor of Virginia. This event prompted fresh reflections on the deep state's pervasive influence, highlighting how political shifts at the state level intersect with entrenched federal bureaucracies.

Expressing a sense of dismay, Kimball notes that every attempt to delineate the boundaries of this Leviathan uncovers additional precincts and vistas. "It saddens me to report that every time I think I have taken the measure of the Leviathan that is the deep state, new precincts and vistas open up beyond the boundaries I had delineated," he writes.

To illustrate the seemingly infinite nature of the deep state, Kimball employs the metaphor of an onion. "Peel back one layer, and another layer presents itself," he observes, suggesting that efforts to expose its core only reveal further obfuscation and complexity.

Expanding on this imagery, Kimball compares the deep state to a basement featuring an endless procession of sub-basements. "Excavate one, and you encounter another below it," he explains, emphasizing the relentless depth that investigators must navigate.

Kimball draws a parallel to Hindu cosmology, invoking the ancient notion of the world resting on the back of a turtle, which in turn stands upon a larger turtle, ad infinitum. "It is like that bit of Hindu cosmology that envisions the world resting on the back of a turtle, which rests on the back of a larger turtle, which rests on the back of a still larger turtle. Asked what that larger turtle stands upon, the answer is that it is ‘turtles all the way down,’" he states, underscoring the bottomless structure of this institutional behemoth.

Through these vivid analogies, Kimball challenges readers to confront the profound and elusive architecture of the deep state, urging a continued scrutiny that matches its boundless scale.