Conservatives made great progress a few years ago when they stopped using "Liberals" to signify the left.  "Progressives" was a step in the right direction, but can we simply use the term "leftists"?  Deriving from the left bank of the Seine River, it suits them far better.

The Deep State is personified in the likes of Comey, Brennan, Clapper, and on down to the slimy Chucky Todd and the reptilian Dr. Anthony Fauci.  Does anyone know how much these fine examples of human devolution get paid?  Fauci has the highest pension in government history, in the hundreds of thousands.

The government (and private-sector) Deep State does indeed do very, very well financially.  Look at the real estate values in Northern Virginia, for example (or, if you prefer, Georgetown).  Did you know that in the real estate crisis of 2008 (brought to us in part by Barney Frank and Chris Dodd), there was only one market in the entire US that did not lose value?  Yep, that would be the Deep State's backyard, the D.C. Metro area.  Getting the picture?

Image: Jill and Joe, the new American Aristocrats by Andrea Widburg.

So let's stop calling the Deep State the "Deep State."  Let's instead call it what it is: "The American Aristocracy."  Their kids attend the best schools, they eat at the toniest restaurants, they have the best urban metro system; heck, they even have a free zoo.  They also have their own elite gala center — the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, paid for on the taxpayer dime — that would make even a 1700s French aristocrat envious.  Even better, their self-congratulatory events there get national coverage by the Public Broadcasting System (also on our dime).

Speaking of the French Aristocracy, a terrible and vicious revolution was waged to do away with that fine institution.  You can find a brilliant detailing of it — at various stages — in Dickens's A Tale of Two Cities.  I would postulate that perhaps flyover country Americans — who also fought a revolution against (British) aristocracy — may not be overly fond of the existence or even the concept of an American Aristocracy — and may, like a coiling spring, be preparing a response to it.

Wait, you say!  The American Aristocracy are leftists, and that disproves their aristocratic bearing.  Well, as the great Mark Twain said, history doesn't necessarily repeat itself, but it decidedly does rhyme.  So it is actually perfect that we have a Leftist Aristocracy.  However, in the Hunger Games likeness that the U.S. is fast becoming, one wonders for how long.