“The US is a democracy in form and theory. But they developed a bureaucratic security apparatus dedicated to fighting wartime threats and allowed it to persist in peacetime. Now it’s mostly self-perpetuating. No elected politician dares tackle it because it’ll get you the enmity of the security apparat, the voters won’t notice the absence of something they’ve grown used to, and if there is an attack, your opponents will crucify you. At least our deep state was designed to support democratic norms while they were becoming established.” She snorted, by way of adding ironic punctuation.
