this is such clownish nonsense. Trump owns the executive branch. His party dominates the courts. Democrats have a foothold in one House of Congress and they are the sheet anchor of the surveillance state. This is absurd on its face. More sinister is that would be strongmen ...
2/ Always try coopt or hollow national security, security and intelligence institutions so they can be replaced by or transformed into ones with loyalty to the strongman. That doesn’t make them civil libertarians. It makes them wreckers and authoritarians bent on rival centers...
3/ power, professional expertise, societal respectability. This is all obvious.
