To the editor: In his column differentiating between the “swamp” and the “deep state,” Jonah Goldberg offers the delusional right-wing vision of the deep state and then claims that it does not exist.
But there is a deep state, and it is alive and well.
It is made up of approximately 3 million men and women who work for the federal government or serve in the military. The one thing they all share is an oath of office that includes a commitment to “protect and defend the Constitution against all enemies, domestic and foreign.”
In its preamble, the Constitution is very explicit about who it serves: “we, the people.”
The government and all its functions, departments and agencies belong to us, the people. The employees of all these departments work for the benefit of us, the people. They do not serve a party or person; They serve us, the people.
Each agency has an organizational chart, a chain of command, that employees follow only to the extent that orders are consistent with the Constitution and established law.
An election selects the chief executive and the board of directors: the president and members of Congress. But these elected officials do not own the government; We, the people, retain full ownership. An election is not a hostile takeover by new owners.
Norman Rodewald, Moorpark
