Beware the rise of the secret state
Michael Flynn was politically assassinated by the deep state. If you are concerned about the threat President Donald Trump and his dysfunctional White House pose to democracy, you should think twice before cheering the orchestrated downfall of Flynn by unaccountable, shadowy agents entrusted with the country’s most sensitive secrets.
His forced resignation is not only bad news for the administration. It also raises serious concerns over the democratic nature of the US political system. This is not how a liberal democracy is meant to function.
You may be right in thinking Flynn was a disastrous choice as National Security adviser and that his questionable ties to high-ranking Russian officials are enough to withdraw confidence in him.
But the end does not justify the means. It was not the place of unelected members of the intelligence community to leak highly sensitive information to bring down an official, a member of a democratically elected government, because he was deemed unqualified and undesirable by them.
The administration’s dealings with Russia are a potentially egregious threat to US and Western interests and therefore rightly a matter of concern to the intelligence community. When a country’s spies no longer have confidence in the basic competence of the administration that they work for, we are in for dangerous times. When they no longer feel that they can share sensitive information with officials because Russia has eyes and ears in the Oval Office, all alarm bells should go off.
Behind closed doors, it is not unusual for the government to be at odds with the intelligence community. But what we are witnessing is open warfare between the White House and the country’s security apparatus, with both parties making no secret of the contempt they have for each other.
The rise of a secret state cannot be the answer to bringing down the Trump administration, no matter how critical you may be. That would be a dangerous drift towards a police state not worthy of the land of the free.