If you read the Monmouth press release, it’s eminently clear that poll officials have slanted the results, albeit not necessarily on purpose. Indeed, for what reason they’ve pursued this idiotic strategy I can’t say, but I will guarantee you this: Suggesting that 70% of Americans believe in something that Trump has been using as an evasive contrivance for months is a very dangerous proposition. You know as well as I do that Trump will grab any little tiny fact that has the slightest odor of confirmation and blast it all over his Twitter feed as proof of his righteousness and divinity. And Monmouth officials just handed him a damn megaphone:
Listen to this quote from the Monmouth press release:
“Few Americans (13%) are very familiar with the term “Deep State;” another 24% are somewhat
familiar, while 63% say they are not familiar with this term. However, when the term is described as a group of unelected government and military officials who secretly manipulate or direct national policy, nearly 3-in-4 (74%) say they believe this type of apparatus exists in Washington. This includes 27% who say it definitely exists and 47% who say it probably exists. Only 1-in-5 say it does not exist (16% probably not and 5% definitely not). Belief in the probable existence of a Deep State comes from more than 7-in-10 Americans in each partisan group, although Republicans (31%) and independents (33%) are somewhat more likely than Democrats (19%) to say that the Deep State definitely exists.”
"A group of UNELECTED government and MILITARY officials who SECRETLY MANIPULATE or direct national policy . . . " Oooh, that sounds so sexy! Do you believe it might be true? Given the size of the government, and the relative sliver of people who have to be elected to get their jobs, could the country truly function any other way?
This description covers every person who works in the State Department, in the Pentagon, in HUD, in DOJ, in Homeland Security, in the Dept of Education, in the Dept of Transportation, in the Labor Dept, in the Dept of Energy, in every other regulatory agency, like the SEC, the FAA, the FDA, in county and state government agencies up the yingyang.
But did the Monmouth officials explain to all these people who never heard the term or were only vaguely familiar with it that Donald Trump has been using “Deep State,” beating it like a dead horse, to evade responsibility for anything and everything his administration has been up to since the inauguration? Anything for which a man with integrity would simply repeat the Truman motto about “The buck stops here,” meaning with the President, for whatever ills had befallen his or her Administration, but inot Trump. Instead, he blames it all on the “Deep State,” that any behavior or event he wants to avoid accountability for, he blames on Obama, who, obviously, is no longer in office, so how can Trump keep blaming him? By using the “Deep State” dodge, that all the people beholding to Obama and HRC are still around and they’re actively trying to undermine Trump. If Monmouth officials had added that description to their explanation of “Deep State,” and why it’s even a relevant term at the moment, this 70% figure would drop to 20-30% in a heartbeat.
Mark my words. You will see Trump tweeting in the next few days, if not tonight, about Americans overwhelming believing in the Deep State and confirming Trump’s innocence of everything.
WTF