Kerry Howley’s journey through the “deep state” – And why we should follow along

A subtle yet vibrantly pink cover wraps around a 2023, hard-bound book. A white, shadow-like figure of the devil stands on top; legs crossed, cell phone in hand, selfie-mode activated.

The text underneath reads: "Bottoms Up and the Devil Laughs."

This NYT Bestseller by Kerry Howley isn't about the Devil or the evil of selfies — well, at least not inherently. Rather, it is a book about the complexities of mental gymnastics, and the dangers of drawing conclusions from the arbitrary arrangement of data, or in other terms, reason. It's about the way this approach to thought can infect the institutions that make up American democracy.

For anyone with a social media addiction in the era of Vine, me included, "Bottoms Up and the Devil Laughs" is a reference to a viral, 2014 video that exemplifies the process of leaving 'point A' to arrive at 'point 5.

I was instantly intrigued by the use of this reference, then admittedly confused by its connection to the book's sub-title. In reading the text, however, Howley reveals her choices, addressing what the playful call-back has to do with the title's second part: "A Journey Through the Deep State."

Whether or not the viral video reference holds meaning for any of Howley's individual readers, her journey through the 'deep state' likely does. In recent years, the deep state has become a buzz-word for various political movements, many of which hold different understandings of what exactly the deep state actually is. For many, the term is associated with the likes of conspiracy theorists, or political discourse they never bothered to join.

As a journalist, I find the deep state to be an enigma of a concept. It's a difficult concept to grasp, let alone report on, since its very nature is vague, secretive, and politicized. But Howley, a journalist herself, has provided in Bottoms Up a new look into 'the deep state,' and its influence on our government and institutions, regardless of election cycle or political leaning.

Through her writing, Howley takes the reader on a dense, and sometimes daunting, ride through the secret state of the post-9/11 war on terror all the way to the events of January 6th, 2021. She does so through personal anecdotes from her time working with government agencies at home and abroad, along with analysis of influence and mistakes that exist throughout media and governmental systems alike. She does so with the central narrative of Reality Winner's whistleblower story, and the various, coexisting elements of power in which it touches-- chief of which being the very thing that the book's meme-referencing title symbolizes: the internet.

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The inner-cover synopsis of Bottoms Up begins with a central excerpt from inside: "Who are you? You are data about data."

This statement in the context of both summary and chapter is followed with the explanation of us, Americans, as maps of connections, formed by the mass culmination of every move we've made online. It is to say that every Google search, each friend request, and all the messages tied to an individual's digital trail can, or is, for people like Reality Winner, used to draw conclusions where the government sees fit.

"Who are you? You are data about data."

Throughout the non-fiction narrative, Howley illustrates the way in which the use of digital data as a 'tool' for national security and against any perceived threats to its end has proven not only flawed, but oftentimes dangerous. Dangerous to individual privacy, democratic procedures, and even human rights. Howley's writing shows the complexities of surveillance and secrecy as it diverges from security, towards threat against whistleblowing, military ethics, political powers, and government transparency.

If this all sounds complicated, that means I've succeeded in portraying the true experience of reading Bottoms Up. Even with the best of summaries, the book with all of its insight could not be represented wholly in a single review.

It would be easy to write a book about the deep state with an air of political leaning to one side or another, but Howley's telling of a complex and often-biased topic is admirable, if not for any other accomplishments but its ability to weave the mess of information into a palatable read with intent for neutrality and fact. The reporting and the writing of a book like Bottoms Up is a daunting task for any author, regardless of reporting acclaim or narrative skill. Yet, Howley manages to invite a reader in with a cheeky title of intrigue, and a gripping peak behind the scenes of hot button topics across politics, government and digital media.

Bottoms Up and the Devil Laughs: A Journey Through the Deep State is a mandatory read for anyone interested in the elements of state and society outlined so far. In my view, this is particularly true for anyone involved in the production of media, from meme making to election coverage.

It often feels mind spinning to make sense of 'the deep state, and for the book's breakdown of what might be happening in the secrecy of federal governance alone, this book is a valuable tool for navigating any form of public discourse around the term. Howley's insight surrounding journalistic concerns like mistake making, source protection, media ethics, fact-checking and truth-telling is sprinkled throughout her text like she intends for her professional peers to receive a second message from the book.

As a reader in this category, I couldn't help but think about the implications of these insights, in addition to the laying out of state secrecy and surveillance, as it all relates to our present moment.

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In 2024, a Presidential election year with heavy political weight, the deep state is a central antagonist for right-wing ideologies including the polarizing "Project 2025," a collection of mandates published by the conservative Heritage Foundation and allies as a detailed guide to political strategy and policy ready for handoff to Trump when he, to them, inevitably returns to the Oval Office.

The plan includes years' worth of preparation and planning in support of a swift and effective return of conservative rule. Through 920 pages of mandate outlining, the project's primary document addresses goals for a conservative, God-fearing, family-centric era of government, and the well-planned strategies of how to reshape our federal government as an institution focused on executive power, rather than the 'bureaucratic' branches of checks and balances that we've upheld for centuries. In other words, or the Project 2025 collation's words, it is a playbook for Trump to implement from inauguration onward, to restore American conservatism to power and to dethrone the current reign of the deep state.

In all fairness, Kerry Howley writes nothing of Project 2025 in Bottoms Up. However, she does wrap the story with two final chapters titled "Our House" and "A Record Against Memory," respectively. It is in the former that Howley finally acknowledges the editorial choice that drew me into the text in the first place: the use of meme canon as a title--Bottoms Up and the Devil Laughs--in relation to an exploration of the deep state.

She lays out what a user of Vine before its purchase by Twitter [which was long before Twitter's purchase by Musk] may have started to gather by this point in the book: That the viral video in reference shows how a collection of independent data can be arranged into a variety of narratives, to arrive at a variety of conclusions.

The video shows a middle-aged, charismatically Christian woman arguing that Monster Energy drinks are satanic. According to Christine Wieck, now infamously known as the Monster Energy Lady, suggests that the devil is hiding in Monster Energy's iconic, green "M" logo, taking the form of three camouflaged crosses waiting to be flipped up-side-down when the drink is sipped.

The logic presented in the video is not so different from the collection of data that can put a young woman, trained and employed by the American government to understand, oversee and ultimately rule on the lives of individuals in Iraq, can end up in a federal courthouse - her lifetime of data used for prosecution against her.

Howley shows how this line of reason, and its "proof," can lead not only to the death of foreign civilians by American drone, or the mishandling of whistleblower identity by the media and it's government, but also events like those of January 6th. Call it an attempted insurrection, a riot, or an out-of-control mob, the storming of the U.S. Capitol by Trump supporters was born in the same arrangement of data, or 'facts, that made Monster Energy Lady believe that Satan was riding a corporate logo into American homes.

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When people are left grappling with independent truths, but no transparency to their correlation, the mind is primed to write its own plot of connection. Inherently, the urge to make sense out of singular facts can lead to what we label conspiracy theories, or even, beliefs that the deep state is controlling our federal government, rigging elections, and standing between the will of God's people, and the highest rank of power among them.

When the can is flipped and the bottom's up, the "hidden truth" is revealed. The Devil Laughs.

For Monster Energy Lady, and groups of MAGA loyalists, the truth does not require the mirroring of fact, only the right arrangement of fact, or in Howley's frame, data, to spin a "truth" from arbitrary narrative. For those of us watching with a "secular" view, the narrative can be laughable, even to the point of virality.

What comes as comedic nonsense to one, can become truth to another--it depends on the data, and the data about data, which as Howley argues, makes up our modern, American individuality. The " deep state" is no different; with the same information about state surveillance and secrecy, different conclusions can be drawn.

Luckily for us, Kerry Howley has given us a guide to teasing out the plot--no matter what side constructed it. And like I have argued, the need for this approach is essential to understanding the current political moment, and the range of truths that are driving fear, theory, and Democracy as we know it. Again, Bottoms Up and The Devil Laughs: A Journey Through the Deep State, is essential reading. For 2024 and beyond.

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