Felix Dzerzhinsky is remembered as the architect of the Soviet police state and its intelligence services.  Former KGB officer Vladimir Putin is among his modern admirers.  While totalitarians (and wanna-be totalitarians) invariably rule by fear and violence, Dzerzhinsky had the vision to go farther, to co-opt those opponents he could not find or destroy by direct means.  He created an entirely false opposition underground (the “Trust”).  Exiles and domestic opponents of the new Soviet regime thought they were working together in secret when in fact every word, every plan was known (and sometimes planted or directed) by Dzerzhinsky himself.  The regime controlled its opposition.

In my more intensely paranoid moments (as opposed to my normal, everyday paranoia), I think that something like The Trust is already in place in the USA.  The permanent (actual) ruling party allows the appearance of opposition solely to let the masses think they have a say, to out potentially dangerous opponents, and to direct opposition energies into harmless activity that does not really interfere with the rulers.