The concept of the "Deep State" is nothing new.  While the origins of the term are often attributed to Turkish "derin devlet" (1990), cryptocracy was already known to ancient Romans and Athenians.

Cicero came up with modern-sounding questions: "To what length will you abuse our patience [Catiline]?  How long is that madness of yours still to mock us?"  This was in 63 B.C., when a Roman senator used "status in statu" in his bid for power.  The causes of conspiracy also ring a bell: Lucius Catiline's frustration over lost elections for consul, his self-aggrandizement, and sense of entitlement.  Conflict in Ancient Greece and Rome: The Definitive Political, Social, and Military Encyclopedia observes that Catiline sought vengeance against his personal rivals and that "[h]e and his followers hoped to enrich themselves from seizing the Roman government[.]"

In terms of political culture, the Deep State is the lowest of the low; in the matter of motives, it is as shallow as the most primitive of human vices.  The idea of a bunch of disgraced politicians waging a war against the world may seem nonsensical, but as Bonaparte put it, "in politics, absurdity is not a handicap."  It shouldn't come as a surprise that those who view taxpayers' money as their private trough are ready to trample entire nations while trotting toward power.

Machiavelli considered that "there is nothing more difficult to plan, more doubtful of success, more dangerous to manage than the creation of a new system."  With a little help from our fiends, the new administration has just one option: gloves off.

While overdosing on totalitarian regimes' pet strategy of "keeping the opponents busy," the underground takes the swing at legitimate government and people's electoral freedom.  It must be made clear both nationally and internationally that everyone who swore to defend the country against all enemies foreign and domestic is ready to do so, and those who act against licit administration are skating on the thin ice of treason.

No matter how tarred and feathered, the Deep State will still try to open a fake peacock tail in a "we still rule" statement.  The shadowy underground will resort to various forms of sabotage and repression to delegitimize the true government and to discourage the nation from supporting the new president.

In line with Alinsky's Rules for Radicals – "Pick the target, freeze it, personalize it, and polarize it" – the cryptocrats will use every leftover of power to "go after people and not institutions" because "people hurt faster than institutions."  If citizens are left unprotected, political repression unpunished, and allies isolated on the political scene, the new administration will be "polarized," too.

"How can one man get away with so much evil for so long?" is the comment reverberating all over the world in reference to George Soros's meddling in politics and his "social experiments."  Soros fed his hubris for years – scavenging on taxpayers' money and playing God wherever corruption opened borders for his "operations."  Lack of accountability fortified his delusions to the point where he is openly bragging about "imperium in imperio" and declaring his intention to "stop" the duly elected president from governing.

The Deep State is in fact as old as greed, and as shallow as the lowest of political vices.  To understand President Theodore Roosevelt's warning – "Behind the ostensible government sits enthroned an invisible government owing no allegiance and acknowledging no responsibility to the people" – is to acknowledge that shadow government leaves no other choice but "si vis pacem, para bellum": if you want peace, prepare for war.