Letters to the Editor: Attacks on the ‘deep state’ are really attacks on we the people

To the editor: In his column differentiating between the “swamp” and the “deep state,” Jonah Goldberg gives the right-wing delusional view of the deep state and then states it does not exist.

But there is a deep state, and it is alive and well.

It consists of the roughly 3 million men and women who either work for the federal government or serve in the military. The one thing they all share is an oath of office that includes a pledge to “protect and defend the Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic.”

In its preamble, the Constitution is very explicit about who it serves: “we the people.”

The government and all of its functions, departments and agencies belong to we the people. The employees of all of those departments work for the benefit of we the people. They do not serve a party or person; they serve we the people.

Every agency has an organization chart, a chain of command, which the employees follow only so far as orders are consistent with the Constitution and established law.

An election selects the chief executive and the board of directors — the president and members of Congress. But these elected officials do not own the government; we the people retain full ownership. An election is not a hostile takeover with new ownership.

Norman Rodewald, Moorpark