Political Process
OK, I know what a lot of you already think: all politics are dumb, and ruin the lives of everyone it touches. From local elections here in Licking County, to the “Raw Milk” folks in the state legislature, to the daily shenanigans in Washington, DC: it’s hard to argue that much “good” is coming from politics.
So, I’m not trying to describe the entire political world, just one particular political move by the Trump administration. It’s dumb. And that’s unusual; like them, or NOT, the folks around Trump are usually pretty good at the “game” of give and take. But they are blowing this one. From a “political process” side, they need to be called out.
The Survivors
There was a dramatic media “conference” on the steps of the Capitol Wednesday morning. Some of the survivors of Jeffrey Epstein’s sexual abuse openly called for the release of all of the information the government has about him, THE EPSTEIN FILES. They spoke in compelling terms: they were tragically damaged as young adolescents for the adult sexual pleasures of Epstein, Maxwell and their friends. The survivors spoke with direct knowledge about what was done to them and who did it. And now, more than twenty years later, they have not recovered. Some of those victims never did recover: suicide is a constant concern.
Games are being played: the Department of Justice released over 30,000 pages of “information” to the House Oversight Committee. But, almost all of those pages already were available to the public, and the remainder are so highly redacted as to be useless. Many thousands of pages remain under-wraps. The survivors are calling on the Administration, and particularly on Donald Trump, to release them all.
The Trump “conspiracy”
And in response, Trump called them a “Democrat conspiracy”, and the demands like “information about the Kennedy assassination”. He might even have arranged for an Air Force flyover to disrupt their conference. So let’s breakdown what actually is going on here.
THE EPSTEIN FILES were a major campaign point FOR Trump. His folks demanded, and he agreed, that ALL the files be released as soon as he got elected. I don’t think it was a pivotal issue: no one voter for Trump and full FILE release, instead of Harris. But it was one that drove his already convinced voters to the polls, helping his turnout. The EPSTEIN FILES were a major part of the whole “Deep State” Government concept, the “swamp” that Trump promised to drain.
While swamp mitigation wasn’t really on the Trump agenda, what his followers hoped for was at least a list of mostly Democratic names. Some were already floated: Bill Clinton, Bill Richardson, George Mitchell, Alan Dershowitz, Prince Andrew of the United Kingdom, and of course Columbus’s own Lex Wexner, of Limited Brands. Trump essentially threatened to “out” them all as sexual predators, by revealing the EPSTEIN FILES.
Frankly, most Democrats think the whole “swamp” thing was stupid (still do). And most of us assumed that Clinton probably was involved. It fits his well-known proclivities. So release the EPSTEIN FILES or not, it wasn’t really a big deal for Democrats.
But it sure was for Trump’s MAGA disciples.
The FILES Go On
So we’ve been dealing with the EPSTEIN FILES for a couple of months. Here’s two essays I wrote about the subject already: It’s Not the Crime, It’s the Coverup, and Tale of Two Deals. But, somehow, the Trump Administration has put itself on the side of the coverup, when they ran for office on the side of “transparency”. It just seems like a politically stupid place to be.
Trump, and a sympathetic Melania should be meeting with the survivors. Trump should be pressing the Congress to reveal all the EPSTEIN FILES. He should order Attorney General Pam Bondi to put them all online, with some redactions to protect “the innocent”. But instead, The President is telling Republican Congressmen that they will be “hostile to the Administration” if they vote for making all the EPSTEIN FILES transparent.
It’s just a dumb political move. He’s on the wrong side of HIS OWN VOTERS. And while Trump (probably) won’t run for the Presidency again, he still needs the MAGA-faithful to exert his personal influence over the rest of the MAGA-Republican office-holders. Why are Republicans Congressmen so afraid of Trump? Because of his power and sway over the Republican primary voters.
All of which leads to the question: why? Why the reversal, why the sudden turn-around, why blame the Democrats for the issue Trump himself started? For all the political “downsides” to his action, there seems to be only one, singular, solitary, answer.
Trump himself must have so much to hide, that he’s taking the heat and this damage to his own base, rather than have it revealed.
What other reason could there be?????
