The One About Jeffrey Epstein
Who knew this guy could unite the country?
The lion tamer controls the lion by cracking a whip and offering it fresh red meat. It’s always worked that way, but now, the lion is watching its tamer with both suspicion and hunger. The tamer is becoming nervous. He's out of fresh meat. The meat he's now tossing is old and rancid – Obama did it, Hillary did it, it's a hoax. The lion isn't convinced. He's hungry, and the tamer is starting to look tempting. The lion is always hungry.
Donald Trump has relied almost entirely on stoking hatred and distrust toward Democrats over the last decade, and it has worked. When you can portray your opponent as an existential threat, nothing else matters. They are the enemy, never to be trusted. For the followers of Trump, Democrats are evil, deserving of hatred, and worst of all, they think you're stupid. These beliefs are the glue that has held the MAGA base together and driven its rage.
For years, Democrats (me included) have searched unsuccessfully for the "skeleton key" that would unlock the secret to dismantling MAGA's alternative reality. The Democratic Party is now spending millions of dollars researching how to talk to men, an initiative that reeks of impending inauthenticity. Some think Democrats need to have their own Joe Rogan to compete in the "manosphere." Or we just need to be better at emphasizing policy implications, such as threats of Medicaid cost increases, higher inflation, the erosion of democracy, increasing debt, etc. If there's a simple explanation for the Democratic Party's failure on this front, it's that wonkiness can't compete with visceral emotion as a driver of engagement.
At least for me, that revelation has been the basis of my running argument that there really is nothing we, as Democrats, can say or do to change the MAGA mind. They certainly aren't going to give greater credence to Democratic talking points than to the alternate universe served up to them daily by Fox News or their favorite podcaster. Condescending Democrats led by a “Deep State” cabal of pedophiles are no match for life-affirming fictions, even if so much of it is about Joe Biden and whether Barack and Michelle are getting divorced.
Only actual reality can move the needle - the intrusion of inconvenient facts, like the nearest hospital shutting down, like a favorite handyman being disappeared, like inflation rising rather than falling, like the defunding of their kid's school. Only direct experience with the consequences of Trump's actions will lead them to a trailhead that begins with Hey, wait a minute, I didn’t vote for that!
This process is underway, but now it is being accelerated by the Jeffrey Epstein Files.
Thanks to the red meat they have been fed for years, MAGA has long believed that the Epstein client list is a treasure trove of Democratic “Deep State” pedophiles and collaborators, which is why the disclosure of these files became a MAGA priority that would deliver confirmation of their enemy’s depravity and pave the way for long-awaited justice. It didn't matter that Trump knew Epstein – he was most assuredly innocent, being that he is a superhero chosen by God to save the world. Here was MAGA’s chance to fully own the libs by locking up all the Democrats who they knew were engaged in the worst criminal behavior and its coverup.
Back in the real world, few of us really cared. We had learned our lesson - Trump has been immune to scandal, and we weren't heading down that road again. Epstein was dead; he killed himself, and even the new head of the FBI, Kash Patel, and his sidekick, Dan Bongino, affirmed it when they finally got to look at all the evidence. Democrats had already moved on - there were, and still are, much higher priorities and greater threats to address.
But because conspiracy circulation is a lucrative business, MAGA and the right-wing media that prosper from it are a long way from moving on. To them, the FBI, and now the Department of Justice - in the person of Pam Bondi and her now-vaporized client list that was on her desk - are only proving that this is a coverup.
Democrats, seeing an opportunity, then did something that MAGA could never see coming: They joined MAGA in their calls to release all of the information on the Epstein files. While it might seem like they were calling the Republicans' bluff, there was no bluff to call – in the real world, there is no one of current concern to Democrats on the Epstein client list, if there is an actual list.
The debacle has left Trump and his shrinking circle of Epstein plumbers in isolation and under siege. What was once a "they could shoot me on Fifth Avenue" level of loyalty is beginning to flake, and, at least as of this writing, momentum is building toward collapse.
Dictators don’t like it when this happens. Under different circumstances, some of these more vocal critics would be accidentally falling off of balconies. Instead, Trump's go-to tactic is to blame Democrats, but it's not catching on, and beyond that, he clearly doesn't know what to do. Accustomed to the delusion that he is all-powerful, he believes he can snuff out the hysteria and get his base to move on, which is why he has continued to mention it; however, this has only perpetuated the scandal's media dominance and speculation.
And then the skeleton key finally emerged.
In a fit of desperation and rage, Trump said something that he really believed, and has all along. He said something that could transform his standing and alter the interpretation of much of his past behavior by his MAGA followers.
He called his most loyal followers stupid.
"It was a hoax. It's all been a big hoax. It's perpetrated by the Democrats, and some stupid Republicans and foolish Republicans fall into the net."
In this context, any Republican who believes there is an Epstein client list in the files is, by Trump's definition, stupid. Whether Trump is fully aware of it or not, this reference happens to encompass the majority, if not the entirety, of the MAGA base.
The MAGA reaction lines up with something Democrats have known for a long time but have been unable to overcome: Facts matter a lot less than whether someone thinks you are stupid. For so many years, just the Democratic assertion of facts was itself perceived as a condescending accusation of stupidity toward anyone who disagreed. Who were we to question their personal experience? Trump mastered how to throttle this engine of grievance, and it has fed off of itself since he hit the political scene with Obama birtherism in the early teens.
Now, a different dynamic is feeding off of itself: The more Trump doubles down on the stupidity of his followers and stonewalls the release of any more information, the more guilty he looks. And as a convicted sexual predator, nobody should be surprised if he is among others on an Epstein list, maybe even a frequent flyer, especially since, according to interview transcripts with Jeffrey Epstein and a recently released “birthday letter”, they were best friends.
Many Democrats have been hardwired to believe that nothing would ever tear Trump’s followers away from him. Millions of dead-end dialogues with intractable family and friends - the grassroots manifestation of national polarization - have calcified us. So naturally, the MAGA reaction has taken us by surprise. But it shouldn’t.
Whenever the leader of a cult begins to wobble, chaos ensues, because the leader defines the identity of its followers to such an extent that his collapse is an existential catastrophe. Throughout history, and especially ancient history, there are numerous examples of entire civilizations that were led by charismatic rulers who portrayed themselves as deities. When, inevitably, those followers were confronted with their leader’s mortality, it was often perceived as a betrayal, and the civilization imploded, sometimes violently. Uncertainty is the enemy of stability.
MAGA resembles an ancient civilization in its devotion to a deified leader, but we really can’t predict what will happen; does this mean MAGA is beginning to perceive their cult leader in the same way we have for the past ten years? That he may actually be a liar? That he's not such a great guy? That he really doesn't care about them and never has? That he thinks they are stupid?
This is the cracked window into Trump’s depravity that we have longed for MAGA to witness. Just consider that nowhere in anything that Trump has ever said in relation to Epstein has there been an expression of outrage and empathy regarding the hundreds of young women who were his victims. This is the man we elected president.
But we must remember that we remain trapped in Trump’s reality show. This means that the next episode – the next great distraction - is coming soon. With the dismantling of our domestic and international institutions - the FBI, NSA, CIA, State Department and Defense Department, we have never been at greater risk of a 9/11 style attack. And there is an ominous incentive for Trump; such an event will effectively be a human sacrifice, so all-consuming of our attention that it will end “The One About Epstein.” episode for good.
But maybe not. We can only hope for the best, and for now, savor this fleeting moment of national unity and perhaps a resurgence of justice as a champion of morality. Be nice to your MAGA connections, if you still have them - they are going through a rough patch.