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The men allegedly leading the ‘deep state’ conspiracy against Trump are surprisingly Republican

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Almost every person who has stood atop the supposed “deep state” law-enforcement-led conspiracy against Trump just so happens to be either a Republican or tied to the same party Trump belongs to.

A purple moon. Surely there's a country song with that phrase.

The evolution of the Koch brothers’ disposition toward Trump can be traced in headlines measuring their gradual warming. See February 2016: “Can the Koch Brothers Stop Trump?”; January 31, 2017: “The Koch Brothers Are Worried About President Trump”; May 18, 2017: “The Koch Brothers Found One Thing They Hate More Than President Trump”; and, now, to the present: “How the Koch Network Learned to Thrive in the Trump Era.”

The latest development in the relationship between the Kochs (right-wing heirs to a business fortune) and Trump (also the right-wing heir to a business fortune) is that the former have thrown the weight of their massive organization unhesitatingly behind the latter. Largely satisfied with Trump’s conservative judicial appointments, lax regulation of business, and regressive tax cutting, the Kochs are spending several hundred millions of dollars to protect the Republican majority. Whatever points of contention remain between the two have been reduced to squabbles between friends.


The Koch rapprochement mirrors a broader trend: Among the conservative intelligentsia — where resistance to Trump has always run far deeper than it has among the Republican rank and file — libertarians have displayed some of the greatest levels of friendliness to the Trump administration. The Wall Street Journal editorial page is a bastion of pro-Trump conspiracy-theorizing about nefarious deep-state plots, in addition to celebrations of the administration’s economic record. Grover Norquist, Stephen Moore, and Ron and Rand Paul, among others, have all staunchly defended the president.

To be sure, some libertarians have dissented fiercely. The Niskanen Center has nurtured a cell of moderate libertarians that has lobbed attacks on the administration and its allies. But Niskanen’s rejection of Trump has come alongside a broader rejection of the priorities of the politically dominant wing of libertarian politics; they have criticized Trump for the same reasons most libertarians have supported him.

Four years ago, a New York Times Magazine story predicted the onset of a “libertarian moment” in American politics. There was never any such movement among voters; indeed, the support Trump generated from his promise of terrific health care for all — plus closed borders, protectionism, and the maintenance of racial and gender hierarchies — reveals that the true unsatisfied demand in American politics was the opposite of libertarianism. Instead, libertarian influence has come in the form of deeply partisan Republican financial and political elites.

The now-close working partnership is not as surprising as it might appear. Before the election, I argued that the Republican party was evolving into a synthesis of libertarian ends and authoritarian means. The party’s core elites were motivated by an economic agenda that bore little support among the voting public. Indeed, libertarians have understood this problem for decades; many of them see democracy as a process that enables the majority to gang up on the rich minority and carry out legalized theft through redistribution. Their highest notion of liberty entails the protection of property rights from the democratic process, and they have historically been open to authoritarian leaders who will protect their policy agenda.

It is not only or even primarily Devin Nunes, The Wall Street Journal editorial page, and Fox & Friends that are marching into the fever swamps. The invisible man at front of the march is Paul Ryan.

The phrase may well, as you suggest. be far more commonly used in the so-called right wing media than the left - for obvious reasons. However, it remains a common linguistic formulation, natural enough for anyone, - including those who pay far less attention to the media than do you.

"Only" is a strong word and you have offered no basis for that.

Before the election, I argued that the Republican party was evolving into a synthesis of libertarian ends and authoritarian means.

Mediaite
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Trump Reportedly Told Andrew McCabe to 'Ask His Wife How It Feels To Be a Loser' http://bit.ly/2EoCNS4

David Frum
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There’s never a bottom. Always some new sub basement of shamefulness beneath the previous sub basement

The Grammy's?????, who give a good God Damn about the Grammy's. But hey, if you think it's a big deal I'm happy for you.

Chris Hayes
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Increasingly sure we're not getting to other side of this without some kind of genunine constitutional crisis in where it's an open question which institutions hold.

The day after FBI Director James Comey was fired, President Donald Trump called then-acting FBI Director Andrew McCabe to complain that Comey was able to fly home on a government plane.

And during the call, he decided to take a shot at McCabe after the acting FBI chief said that while he hadn’t been asked to authorize the flight but would have if asked.

The president was silent for a moment and then turned on McCabe, suggesting he ask his wife how it feels to be a loser — an apparent reference to a failed campaign for state office in Virginia that McCabe’s wife made in 2015.

McCabe replied: “OK, sir.” Trump then hung up the phone.

Julia Ioffe
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Just talked to a source in Moscow who is close to the Foreign Ministry. "The whole world is laughing at America," he said. "America has never been as ridiculous as it is now.

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Nixon on Watergate in State of the Union, 44 years ago tomorrow night: "I believe the time has come to bring that investigation and the other investigations of this matter to an end. One year of Watergate is enough!"

1) A president and his party are ignoring a direct attack on American democracy and sovereignty
2) They are excusing and even rewarding Russia (today's refusal by Trump and party to sanction Russia}
3) They have been seeking to discredit and squelch the nation's law enforcement agencies who are doing their proper duties

This is America, under Trump and the Republican party.