This has been clear for a while, and the trend began during the Obama Administration, continued through the Trump Administration, and is very pronounced in the Biden Administration: Democrats have fallen in love with the U.S. security state.

The F.B.I.? Love it!

The C.I.A.? Super great guys.

D.H.S.? Gotta love ’em!

I.R.S.? Well, they collect all those sweet taxes, so great guys.

Pew Research did a poll about how Americans view federal agencies and most of the results won’t surprise you. Americans love the Park Service for obvious reasons, and surprisingly there is bipartisan approval of the Postal Service.

There are wide partisan gaps in Americans’ views of federal agencies. Democrats and those who lean toward the Democratic Party hold consistently favorable views of all 16 agencies asked about, while Republicans and those who lean toward the Republican Party express more unfavorable than favorable views for 10 of the agencies.

The partisan divisions in favorability are deepest for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, or CDC (80% favorable among Democrats vs. 31% among Republicans); the Environmental Protection Agency, or EPA (74% vs. 36%); and the Department of Education (62% vs. 29%). Republicans’ and Democrats’ views are also deeply divided over the Department of Transportation, HHS, the FBI, the IRS, the Federal Reserve and other agencies.

But most of the other agencies get vastly different levels of support from Republicans and Democrats. There’s nothing inherently surprising about that, since Democrats love government and Republicans don’t in general terms. But Democrats always reserved a great deal of skepticism about the security state until the past 15 years or so.

In contrast, there is more partisan agreement on the Department of Veterans Affairs (56% favorable among Republicans vs. 57% among Democrats); the National Park Service (81% vs. 84%); the Postal Service (73% vs. 82%); and NASA (71% vs. 79%). Among Democrats, the CDC and EPA receive some of the highest net favorability ratings. Eight-in-ten Democrats give a favorable rating to the CDC compared with 15% who see the agency unfavorably – for a 65 percentage point net advantage. For the EPA, 74% of Democrats see the agency favorably – 62 points more than the share who see it unfavorably. Democrats view the IRS least favorably of the 16 federal agencies: They are only 13 percentage points more likely to view it favorably than unfavorably (53% vs. 40%).

It used to be that Republicans were more comfortable with the intelligence and law enforcement agencies than Democrats, although ATF has never been a favorite of those of us who use Red ballots.

During the Bush years, the FBI, CIA, and Homeland Security were anathemas to liberals. They were the bad guys; the ones who oppressed people, especially Muslims, and who lied us into war.

Not anymore. They are the good guys; the ones who oppress Republicans and help promote wars the Democrats like.

Glenn Greenwald, who has been a security state skeptic all along, didn’t change. The liberals did.

And don't even try advancing the excuse that Dems only love these agencies, and the GOP only distrust them, because Dems control the Executive Branch. The same dynamic prevailed under Trump.

Dems are the party of the US Security State. That's a fact:https://t.co/5FGe6OJiGO

— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) March 30, 2023

I know that my views have radically changed on the FBI and CIA over the years, and I never ever liked Homeland Security. Even the name is creepy.

My views on the CIA haven’t changed simply because their focus has changed; it’s that the more you know how they incited and continued to incite extremism, entrapment, and political shenanigans the less you can trust them. Even their vaunted crime lab is a corrupt mess. The CIA is filled with politically connected liars and incompetents, and the NSA turns its spying activities on US citizens illegally.

The FBI lies to courts, influences elections, spies on reporters, and is filled with bureaucrats who only want to be political players.

How naive I was. A sweet summer child, as it were.

Releatedly:

Listen to Norman Finkelstein explain how pathetic the pseudo-radical US "left" now is:

"Radical" used to mean a willingness to go to prison for views US power centers found threatening.

Now it's Judith Butler supporting Hillary & Biden, then changing her pronouns: pic.twitter.com/nPVoRmEcom

— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) March 30, 2023

After the last decade, it is impossible for me to view any of the intelligence or security agencies in a positive light. They have been weaponized. Their leaders committed perjury before Congress. They are partisan hacks, lending their imprimatur to disinformation, such as arguing that the Biden laptop was disinformation. They conspired against a sitting president.

It’s not that Democrats who approve of the agencies don’t know that. They do.

It’s that they approve of it.

At root, this is because there is a fundamental difference between how modern liberals (not classical liberals) view justice and power and how conservatives do.

You have undoubtedly noticed how often the Republicans talk about the Constitution and constitutional limits to government, and how often Democrats deride constitutional concerns. They even deride the Founders.

Conservatives focus on ensuring both a fair process and good results; liberals want good results. The process is a distraction.

This isn’t just a question of tactics. It is a fundamental and irreconcilable difference in outlook. Philosophically conservatives are committed to the constitutional order, and liberals are not. That is why they are throwing away the Bill of Rights and wedded to an imperial presidency of using a pen and the phone.

Ironically liberals used to be much more focused on process than they are now, and conservatives were somewhat less so. Constitutional conservatism really took off during the 80s and came to dominate the conservative movement, receding somewhat during the Trump years when populism became a countervailing force within the movement.

Still, the balance of power among conservatives leans heavily toward limiting government power and sticking to the rules while liberals believe in grabbing all the power you can and using it as freely as possible.

That’s why you see IRS agents showing up to intimidate Matt Taibbi as he testifies before Congress. It’s a power move, and proof that government is weaponized against anybody the Left wants to silence.

I am not certain how you fix this. Liberal democracy relies upon the consent of the governed, not the bullying of the dissenters. Once you go down that path how do you revert back to relying on consent alone?

I am afraid that, perhaps, you never can.