This has been a republican strategy decades in the making. The comment above framed it as an arms race and that’s a good way to put it. They’ve had the overthrow of democracy in their heads as an objective and have undertaking a concerted strategy to achieve it.
The democrats were always going to be at a disadvantage simply responding to that, but that disadvantage is made a lot worse by the fact that they don’t seem to want to respond to it. They have an idea of what this country is and that comes with a bunch of lines their unwilling to cross. Meanwhile republicans had a clear idea of what they want this country to be and were willing to trample any line, break any law or norm, in order to make it a reality.
This? The news story we’re responding to? It may represent the first stumbling steps off the starting line. But it doesn’t change the fact that the starting pistol sounded decades ago and the republicans have been running the whole time.
Too little, to late. I don’t want that sentiment to be true, but I find it hard to look at this situation and view it in any other way.
It’s that “everyone with a brain” bit that’s different now. Because you’re right, nothing here is new. Trump and Epstein’s ties have been pretty common knowledge to anyone not in the cult.
What’s changed is that those inside the cult can’t really ignore it anymore. They went from “the democrats are all pedophiles and the Epstein files prove it!” to “they have the Epstein files on their desks, they are just doing some final checks before they release them” to “there are no Epstein files, there never were any Epstein files, and if you think different you need to shut up.”. Cognitive dissonance may be a powerful force, but “the Epstein files” have been the conspiracy bread and butter that’s been holding this cult together for a while now. They were probably willing to bend on just about anything but that.
A lot of hay is made out of the fact that Trump managed to fuck up running a casino, and it’s true. In a business where the saying goes “the house always wins”, it takes a special breed of incompetance to bankrupt the house. This feels very similar. Dude could have said that aliens stole the Epstein files, Q-anon folks would have bought it. Or better yet don’t say anything at all. I think a lot of folks wouldn’t have bat an eye if Trump’s cronies were still “working on releasing the Epstein files” in 2028.
But he didn’t do that. He made a huge song and dance about “releasing the Epstein files” then obviously canned it at the last minute. For the rabid conspiracy theoriests that comprise his base, the folks who were willing to invent an entire child trafficing code for pizzagate, that was probably the one manuver even he couldn’t pull.
Will this mean anything in the long run? Well, I’ve kinda had my hope beaten out of me in that respect. But this does kinda feel different, I will say that.