The Deep State

"The New York Times bestselling author of The Party Is Over delivers a no-holds-barred, House of Cards-style expose of who really wields power in Washington. Mike Lofgren is back with a book perfectly pitched for the frenzied circus of the primaries. His argument this time is that for all of the backstabbing and money grubbing of the campaign season, the politicians we elect have as little ability to shift policy as Communist party apparatchiks. Welcome to Mike Lofgren's Washington, D.C.--a This Town, where the political theater that is endlessly tweeted and blogged about has nothing to do with actual decision making. The real work gets done behind the scenes by invisible bureaucrats working for the vast web of agencies that actually dictate our foreign policy, defense posture, and security decisions. Have you ever wondered why Obama's policies look so much like Bush's? Seek no further: Hillary v. Jeb is just window dressing. Actual power lies in the Deep State, Washington's shadowy power elite, in the pockets of corporate interests and dependent on the moguls of Silicon Valley, whose data-collecting systems enable the U.S. government to spy on our every move, swipe, and click. Drawing on insider knowledge gleaned in his three decades on the Hill, Lofgren offers a provocative wake-up call to Americans and urges them to fight to reinstate the basic premise of the Constitution"-- "An acerbic, no holds barred indictment of business as usual in Washington, DC--where our elected leaders provide a fig leaf for those who really hold the levers of power--by a 28-year veteran of the Hill, the bestselling author of The Party Is Over Have you ever noticed that behind all the mud-slinging and invective there isn't much difference between the parties? For all of his big talk and promises of change, Obama is basically Bush lite. And Hillary--or Jeb--will be more of the same. We spend ten times more on the political circus leading up to elections than any other country, but what are we getting for all of that money? The truth, as Mike Lofgren reveals in this devastating takedown of beltway business, is that our elected leaders provide a fig leaf for those who really hold the levers of power, the unelected functionaries of our ever-growing bureaucracies who decide America's defense, intelligence, and foreign policy and the corporate titans who control them. If it sounds like House of Cards it's because there is more truth to that than you might care to believe. Mike Lofgren draws on his three decades on the Hill to take you behind the scenes and map out where ower is really held in Washington, in the bowels of what he calls "the deep state.""--

Beyond its central premise, the book can be read through the connected lenses of Nonfiction. Those themes offer useful points of attention as the characters, ideas, or world develop, especially where the book complicates the expectations of its primary category.