The Great Unraveling: The Collapse of Trust in the Elites and the Rise & Fall of the Deep State
As public trust in elites plunges to historic lows, the century-long premise of Progressivism — that the best and brightest should rule us — is coming apart at the seams.
NOTE: I have spent countless hours explaining to you the “Cold Civil War” in American life, the war between two ideas: that the government should be accountable to and directed by the people through elections, vs. the belief that a managerial elite can and should rule us better, and thus must be insulated from those same people and elections.
The first is the constitutional order established by our Founding Fathers. The second is the progeny of the Progressive movement — rooted in socialist presuppositions — which finally consolidated its power under FDR during the Great Depression. It was FDR who created what we call the “Deep State”, the permanent, unaccountable, unfireable bureaucracy through which (Democrat) one-party rule has “managed” the nation for more than 90 years.
It is not easy to get people to give up their power, especially in a country whose heritage is “of the people, by the people, and for the people”. So of course the Progressives lied. They convinced the public, through the twin crises of the Depression and World War II, that it was the American system itself which had failed, and that “something had to be done!” Technology was advancing rapidly, smart people — “the best and the brightest — had to save us, and a government “for the people” simply couldn’t work if it was “of the people” or “by the people”.
Indeed, we were increasingly assured, it was the bureaucrats who needed to supervise the elected branches, not the other way around.
A system like that requires trust, because at its core, it’s a con. Like all confidence games, the mark (us) has to have confidence in the swindler. In this case, we (or at least our grandparents and great-grandparents) were swindled out of our constitutional birthright, and in the process, much of our property and our freedom as well. It’s a very short step from a con game to a protection racket. This “new and improved” American government has long been both.
But the marks have caught on. Confidence in the system is at an all-time low. Real change is in the air.
That’s how you get a Donald Trump. Of course his elite enemies cast him as a fascist, to deflect from the truth that they’ve been practicing a mild form of fascism for nine decades. In the real world, Trump is restoring the original, constitutional system. The elites can’t bear it. But they are increasingly deprived of the means to stop it.
As he always does, Jeffrey Tucker lays this out exceptionally well, below. — RDM
The Great Unraveling: The Collapse of Trust in the Elites and the Rise & Fall of the Deep State
by Jeffrey A. Tucker
February 19, 2026
Can you keep up with the news as it pertains to government policy? If you answer yes, I’m skeptical. There is just too much happening in public affairs. It’s overwhelming, so much so that those of us tasked with covering and interpreting can hardly scratch the surface. History is being made daily these days, with reform on fast-forward even as public confidence in government the world over is in a constant state of collapse.
