The American empire has not become kinder and gentler just because they are flying the rainbow or BLM flags at our embassy’s. Or because there is now a lesbian at the helm of the CIA directing drone strikes. Or because the CIA has a new ad touting its diversity.

Only NPR listening, New York Times reading liberals believe such nonsense. These same people also believe that the election of Joe Biden made the US a kinder and gentler country after the horror of Trump.

As I’ve been describing in my recent posts on neoliberalism, the US empire is based on financialization and that hasn’t changed. Moreover, the US, is effectively an oligarchy. In 2014, Princeton did a study which found that the opinion of anyone who is not part of the oligarchy has no effect on what the government does. Which means, as we’ve seen, that it doesn’t matter which party is in charge because the policies remain the same.

Maybe this has something to do with the neoliberal proclivity to seize the state for their own purposes not reduce it or destroy it? Hence neoliberals are inclined to explore new formats of techno-managerial governance that protect their ideal market from unwarranted political interference. Indeed, neoliberals preach that the “government, beyond its proper sphere ought not to have any power; within its sphere, it cannot have enough of it.”

If this sounds suspiciously like a definition of our illusionary deep state give yourself a cookie. If fact, I’ve come to believe that the advancement of neoliberalism and the US deep state are connected at the most elemental level. It’s the perfect governance for neoliberals with their double truth, where they get the appearance of a democratic republic as a cover story, while in reality the important decisions are made behind the scenes by a select group of elite to manage the worldwide empire that provides their wealth and power.

It’s crucial to note that neoliberalism and the modern deep state came together against the the threat of communism. This manifested itself in an embrace of fascism as a bulwark. The corruption of US foreign policy by the connection to fascism began in the interwar period. Historical records clearly show that the fascist powers–Germany and Italy–were funded by Wall Street, for ideological and monetary reasons. After WWII, in their fervor to combat communism and the Soviet Union, American planners supported fascist dictators and spirited thousands of Nazi’s out of postwar Europe, many to the US. Meanwhile, the neoliberals, led by Freidrich von Hayek, drew much of their inspiration for the construction of an ideal market society from Carl Schmitt, Hitler’s political philosopher.

Going further, I believe that the modern American deep state metastasized in response to the threat of communism but also to the the threat of the New Deal, or indeed, any alternative to predatory capitalism.