Dakota Beacon

For those not already familiar with the term, a “putsch” describes a revolt or a sudden and decisive change of government, a coup. Now, hold that thought.

Set the scene by identifying the players. In the crassest scenario think of the protagonist as the president of the US. Then, think of the antagonists or perpetrators of direct action. Different names apply, some more descriptive than others: deep state, administrative state, shadow state, bureaucracy, civil servants. Think in terms of unelected government employees. Imagine this loose alliance regarding themselves as anointed custodians of power.

To better grasp this entity, think of more than 450 federal agencies staffed by 2.7 million bureaucrats consuming billions of tax dollars. Making matters more problematic, the incestuous relation between these bureaucrats, the media, lobbyists, and leading universities create a focus of power feared by our Founders.

Annoying and sometimes harmful agencies and departments include the IRS, EPA, Agriculture Department, and others. We all interface with these. But much more sinister are those agencies who exercise disdain for elected officials and our republic as founded. These include those who comprise the military intelligence complex.

There was a time when ranking active and retired officers in the CIA, FBI, DOJ, NSA, and the military were apolitical. Their loyalty was first and foremost to the US Constitution. They served both Democrat and Republican administrations without partisanship. That was then. This is now. At the highest levels the elite float among the State Department, Defense Department, White House, CIA, FBI, intelligence services, universities, and high paying media gigs.

Today the miliary intelligence complex has unabashedly become partisan. It wields tremendous power and will unhesitatingly use it to interfere with elected officials, their decisions, and to influence federal policy. The real danger occurred when the military intelligence complex became politicized wielding power to advance an ideology or political party or to preserve their own status. President Obama’s misuse of the FBI, CIA, DOJ, and FISA courts to surveille the campaign and the transition to President Trump’s administration convinced many Americans the military intelligence complex had too little oversight and too much power.

Consider examples of the unwarranted, if not illegal, involvement of unelected federal careerists in the exercise of power. A sampling illustrates the point. Soon after the 2016 election an opposition group described as #Resistance (Google it) gathered Trump opposition including Hillary Clinton.

FBI partisan lawyer Kevin Clinesmith was part of special counsel Rober Mueller’s team investigating Trump’s involvement with Russia in 2016 election interference (later proven to be a hoax). Clinesmith pled guilty in 2020 to a federal felony of concocting evidence in a FISA warrant application and altering a federal document submitted to the court.

Rosa Brooks had been in an advisory capacity in the Obama administration’s State Department. She had also been a special counsel to President Obama at the George Soro’s Open Society Institute. In “Foreign Policy” magazine she offered advice on how to remove President Trump from his elected office before 2020 by means other than through a lost election. Her article was titled “Three Ways to Get Rid of President Trump Before 2020.”

Fired acting FBI director Andrew McCabe together with deputy attorney general Rod Rosenstein had discussed the possibility of convincing authorities to remove President Trump under provisions of the 25^th Amendment. Rosenstein offered to wear a wire to record Trump’s conversations.

Retired General James Mattis serving as Trump’s Secretary of Defense became so exasperated over policy differences, he discussed with others an intervention against an “unfit” and “dangerous” commander in chief. “Coup” became the bipartisan discussion topic among those resisting Trump – or any person in the future deemed “dangerous” like him.

Navy admiral William H. McRaven essentially declared President Trump a traitor.

Retired Army four-star general Barry McCaffrey (a former classmate of mine) stated, “He [Trump] is a serious threat to US national security.”

Retired Air Force four-star general Michael Hayden and former CIA director compared Trump’s policies to Nazism.

These examples are representative. Many more could be cited.

For all their involvement in domestic political shenanigans, consider intelligence agencies’ failures to do their jobs warning of real dangers. Some include the Yom Kippur War, Iranian Revolution of 1979, the Pakistan detonation of a nuclear bomb, collapse of the Soviet Union, the planned attacks on 9/11, Saddam Hussein’s weapons of mass destruction, turmoil in Libya, and the rise of the ISIS caliphate.

A broader, more detailed, and footnoted discussion of this theme can be found in Victor Davis Hanson’s 2021 book “The Dying Citizen: How Progressive Elites, Tribalism, and Globalization Are Destroying the Idea of America.” Chapter Four, “Unelected,” lays out the above argument in a detailed and comprehensive analysis.

Dennis M. Patrick can be contacted at (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).