Some think the Iran war is Trump’s “excursion” to distract from his involvement with Epstein. Maybe so, but his absurd conduct of the war makes you wonder. You’ll recall that in both his presidential campaigns Trump positioned himself as the outsider who would drain the elitist swamp. Instead, his administration “stands as the ultimate monument to elite impunity.” The proof is all over the Epstein files.
He positioned himself as the outsider who would take on America’s cultural and political elites. That’s what got him elected twice, as the prince of retribution:
In a world where regular people have watched again and again as rich assholes hollowed out their communities and denuded their lives and faced zero consequences for their crimes, Trump’s exhortation—“For those who’ve been wronged and betrayed, I am your retribution”—starts to sound pretty good.
Ironically, however, MAGA was ripe for betrayal. The Trump administration proved to be the wolf in sheep’s clothing. Senator John Ossoff put it this way:
We were told that MAGA was for working-class Americans. But this is a government of, by, and for the ultra-rich. It’s the wealthiest Cabinet ever. This is the Epstein class. They are the elites they pretend to hate. If you’re Steve Bannon, how do you sell any of this?
What the Epstein class has done is so abhorrent—and has been so prevalent—that the Democrats would be fools not to connect the administration’s crimes to the elitist horrors of Epstein & Co. Yet only a few of them, like Ossoff and Ro Khanna have so far shown they have the cojones to take up arms against the “Epstein class, prosecuting its horrors, and rooting out the larger culture of elite impunity that is destroying our country from within.” Too many of the old guard Dems, like Bill Clinton, Reid Hoffman and Larry Summers, were Epstein consorts for years. Republicans have mostly made themselves deaf to the elitist cabal that has dominated them for so long.
Too many present-day Dems have remained silent, even noncommittal about all this. They are ripe for primarying. The irony that Trumpism was central to the ruling elites of both parties brings to mind the French Revolution and “off with their heads.” Or maybe it was Alice in Wonderland.