It’s a political base problem few are willing to admit.
Republicans are imploding over Jeffrey Epstein, and the evidence is hard to miss. The panic among GOP lawmakers is unlike anything I’ve seen in a decade of reporting on Congress.
Republicans can’t keep their heads down and trust that the base will keep holding them up, because the Republican base is what’s causing the current panic.
Far-right lawmakers are anxiously trying to navigate around the Scylla of Trump and congressional leadership pushing them to hold off on the Epstein issue, and the Charybdis of the hot-headed multitudes who lifted them into office after getting them to promise to reveal every dark secret of the Epstein case.
Democrats as usual are staying quiet and not doing anything to use this to win new voters over
If I had a nickel for every time I heard the Republicans are imploding, or the Democrats are imploding…
Lmao they aren’t. They’re laughing that people keep focusing on trying to use the legal system they own against them.
They’ll do exactly as their told. Their leash holders are not panicking because they just have to say HEEL and the MAGAts will fall in line, spinning the Epstein files into something more palatable
Don’t worry Republicans. Your opposition is the Democratic Party.
No they aren’t. The Trump voterbase has already moved on, which is the only chunk of the population they care about. The media and the rest of the population can talk about Epstein all they want, it doesn’t matter in the slightest to them.
Bullllllllll Shito. I don’t believe that anyone of any consequence is “panicking”, or “imploding”. Yeah they might lose majorities, they might lose some lower contested seats along the margins, like any other electoral shift.
The wealthy pedos will not be held accountable. Nobody is going to pay.
My only concern is that if shit gets real, they’ll do a limited hangout, targeting Democrats for a political purge, or even rapidly accelerate the push for war with Iran, Russia, and China.
We are nearing total dissolution, a real time collapse, and the Epstein controversy may end up being the catalyst.
Why would they push for war with BRICS? Putin owns the turnip, China knows he’s a joke.
Who do you think Putin gets his spy tech, potatoes? Pooh’s got the goods on pretty much everyone, at this point, no doubt. 🤷🏽♂️
The whole ‘Q’ mythos is based around the premise that liberals must be pedos because, lacking a religion-based straitjacket of a moral code, there’s nothing to keep them from doing anything.
The reality is that, while there are certainly instances of bad sexual behavior across the political spectrum, it is the authoritarian MAGA culture in which child sexual abuse is a systemic problem— a natural consequence of deference to power and the entitlement felt by those given that power.
I know it’s wishful thinking, but the Epstein obsession of the MAGA base may end up crumbling more than just the current GOP.
a natural consequence of deference to power and the entitlement felt by those given that power.
Holy shit, what a great way of putting it! Every side is capable of evil, but one side thrives even more on the very thing (power) that corrupts and leads to dissociation from the masses.
I know it’s wishful thinking, but the [current issue in the news] obsession of the MAGA base may end up crumbling more than just the current GOP.
I have heard some variation of this countless times over the last 20 years, especially since Trump was a relevant politician. The only consistent thread connecting those incidents has been that they’ve never turned out to be anything of consequence. Republican voters vote for Republicans. They always have and they always will. This will not change that fact.
There was a time before MAGA and there will be a time after MAGA. Not everyone who voted Republican in 2024 is going to vote Republican in 2026 or 2028… But surely you know all that, and still you decided to write some self-defeating fatalistic text. Strange.
Which version of Republican voters decided to vote for someone less awful than the candidate before?
Sometimes Republican voters don’t come out, though.
In all previous instances, the agents of the ruling class were totally in control of the media landscape. Mainstream media has finally ceded enough to the internet, and the influencers they rely on to deliver a single message are all off their leashes, with fully half of them unwilling to get back in line.
I’ll concede that it’s probably still wishful thinking on my part, but the current situation is significantly different that what has happened before.
And yet, not a single republican I know, has ever even considered changing their vote. These articles are hopium, diminishing his base is not going to happen.
Every little bit helps. My dad changed his vote in 2016. My mom opted out in 2016 and changed her vote in 2020, and is now campaigning for Democrats. For that matter, I voted for Bush, McCain, and Romney before discovering how I’d been lied to and voting for Clinton, Biden, and Harris (and now I’m literally a democratic socialist). I know people who haven’t changed their vote, but who stopped campaigning for the GOP. I know people who are only voting in local races now.
The articles aren’t just hopium. The base is diminishing; it’s just not going as fast as we would like. Maybe the Epstein thing will finally do it.
I appreciate the comment and it is certainly good to see some change among the populace. I personally haven’t seen that change and if anything have seen people who touted themselves as neutral before somehow finding all of this acceptable. But I am always happy to see that some have actually changed their opinions.
I personally haven’t seen that change
I really hope you do soon. Hey, look at it this way, you’ve met one now!
I appreciate the comment and it is certainly good to see some change among the populace. I personally haven’t seen that change and if anything have seen people who touted themselves as neutral before somehow finding all of this acceptable. But I am always happy to see that some have actually changed their opinions.
There is a basic assumption in most news articles, that most of voters are somehow misguided and that with the right information they will eventually change their minds. In the case of MAGA and adjacent Republicans, we are talking about people that have been bred by the system to respond to certain kind of messaging and little else. They are mentally handicapped by the system, they do not possess the tools to process what is happening and even their basic humanity has been sabotaged. The solution is not to convince them to change their vote, but to discourage them from taking any actions. This is what the system does with progressives, they discourage them and convince them that politics are useless. It’s time this is used against the lobotomized strongest minority.
Unfortunately as a result of all this the U.S. has rapidly slipped into a failed state with little chance of recovery, while China is assuming the role of global dominance.
Very well put, and a similar realization and tactic to what I tried with my dad after the first term. Unfortunately it didn’t work out for me, but I agree with the strategy. After J6 I stopped trying with my dad though, like Uvalde/Sandy Hook, if that isn’t gonna sway you, nothing will.
There were the two on the House Oversight committee who voted with the Democratic members last week to subpoena all the Epstein files.
It was three actually, but if two of the people are Nancy Mace and Scott Perry, I can promise you it has nothing to do with the tide turning.
I think I misunderstood your “changed their vote” comment. I mistook it for Congressional voting records but after seeing someone else’s reply I’m guessing you meant the voting public.
Right on, yeah I meant more among the populace, or I would also accept meaningful change from the politicians on that side of things. I thought about clarifying that afterwards but didn’t want to seem like I was moving goalposts are itching for a fight or something. I just see these articles as the same as the last 10 years of ‘this time he’s really gonna have to face the consequences.’ The one I hate most of all is ‘Roberts privately expresses concern over the publics image of the supreme court.’ Like, no, he really fucking doesn’t.
💯
I will throw in my own anecdata that I have relatives and in-laws who historically voted Republican who have at least outwardly said they have been changing how they vote starting either 2016 or 2020.
You’re right about the majority of his base who are all in on the cult and will never change their minds. But he had a lot of help from other demographics who aren’t in the cult like those who are Q first or independents who thought he’d improve the economy ‘like he did in his last term’ LOfuckingL.
We gotta watch the polls, he’s trending down over the last months and this surely isn’t helping. He’ll probably never drop below 35% ish but the closer he gets to that the less power he has because a great majority of his power is derived from the bully pulpet.
Idk, my dad is one of the classic conservatives and definitely doesn’t fall into the maga camp, even going so far as to tell my mom he hated trump (only after his loss to Biden but before j6). I see him as a pretty run of the mill republican that represents a wide swath of the voting right. Anyone that watches Fox news is actively looking to convince themselves of the rhetoric. It’s especially easy to weather all of this right now because they have another year before the migrant caravan magically shows up to distract them again before midterms. That, or the Clinton flight logs which somehow absolves trump of his relation to Epstein.
I mean, of course not. Do you really expect them to vote for a liberal?
I’ve been a part of turning several conservatives since 2016 but as of 2024, and under far more convincing circumstances, I haven’t seen one turn. I’m glad others have faith, and I’ve seen some online change, but every single one in my sample is entrenched more than ever. Here’s hoping they’re just the most stubborn or immune to reality
That’s similar to what I’ve anecdotally seen. The right is absolutely locked in right now. The timing for me seems to be right around when Kamala got swapped in for Biden. Idk if that was just because election season, or if again seeing a person of color come that close to power reawakened them. That was when I saw new flags fly from previous unknowns/‘non-politicals’ as well.
I still cannot believe this is a real thing. No new information was published, yet some people are starting to wake up.
It is not real in the sense that it is a grassroots endeavor. It is real in the sense that some wealthy people who control media have given this issue some airtime. If not for this people would not care.
So what does this mean? They’re done with t, and that the next phase of the plan will start? It will be interesting to see where this goes - will maga follow the new leader? Will that even matter?
It means not everyone is completely on board for Project 2025. Or perhaps they just see a different way to achieve the goal. Maybe on some level certain people are done with Trump.
What is the implication? It will slightly slow down the Trump train and distract everyone in the process. So not much and even if it is related to a division in the party they are helping out the end goal with distraction.
I do wonder how much longer folks will be distracted on the high prices… some are excited that we “made so much money” from the tariffs….
That’s exactly the point, but I think you forgot the conclusion. Many talk show hosts and voters actually did believe the conspiracy was real. Then the natural timing for releasing all of the information on Epstein is a couple of months after the president takes power, which brings us to where we are today. Claims were made, promises were made, and people are waiting for that information to be properly published.
I think this is one of those interesting issues because Trump lies all the time but many of his lies have to do with things that are slightly obscure from 6 years ago, that if you weren’t paying attention or you didn’t go back and look at the history books or the video, you could be forgiven if you forgot. He might say some law was passed by Obama but actually he’s the one who signed it, for example, but if you didn’t know much about that law in the first place, it’s not going to be fresh in your brain that he’s lying to you. But the Epstein scandal, that talk continued until a few months ago, and it’s very easy to understand what the claims are and how a transparent investigation would occur.
I can’t even remember what started it? Was it Bondi saying there was no list or was that in response to something else. I guess I didn’t expect his base to care because they didn’t care when most of this was out there even before his first term.
Yes it was Bondi saying there was no list and the FBI director resigned over it. In February she said the list was on her desk and she was waiting for it to be read through or whatever. It’s definitely not a coincidence that in March Trump was notified he is on the list.
The amazing thing to me is that Trump has been completely open about his predilections for decades.
He went on Howard Stern and boasted about barging into the dressing rooms at the Miss Teen USA Pageant.
I heard an interview where Ivanka talked about asking Daddy not to date girls younger than her.
He talked about sex yachts to the Boy Scouts.
Now they are noticing it?
I remember a couple being interviewed before the 2016 election. They owned a construction business that was hired by Trump. He screwed them over, never paid, and completely destroyed their business and their lives.
They still said they were voting for him.
I bet you could have added “raped their 13-year-old daughter” to the list without him losing their vote.
“Yeah, I won’t let him stay over at the house again, but we need a businessman in the White House.”
I’ve always said the only thing that would turn his fans against him is if Trump blew a black man live on TV.
No, then they’d just persecute the black man for making Trump do that.
Only if it was Obama.
There was an Epstein interview released before the election where even Epstein was disgusted by Trump’s propensity to sabotage his friend’s marriages so he could get their wives to sleep with him out of “revenge”.
Yet this is the #1 draft pick for the Christian right.
The media has broken it’s back bending over backwards to try and kiss Trump’s ass. Anyone else would have been destroyed and behind bars long ago
Conservatives are going on and on about releasing the list so they can go after the clients, well you know who most certainly is on that list? Trump. But they do nothing, so clearly wanting the list wasnt about catching the pedos, just the pedos they aren’t friends with
Honestly the republicans have always been in panic mode since the time of Nixon or earlier.
Nixon should have been a wake up call for politics. A defining moment when the conservatives realized they had gone to far. A time for introspection and a radical change in their behavior.
Just kidding! What happened was they made sure that they could never get prosecuted like that again by never admitting fault and always circling the wagons no matter what (even when they elect child molesters).
Maybe individually, but not collectively as a party. Their voters, completely controlled by oversized amygdalas, will continue to vote R.
You live by stirring the conspiracy shit pile, you die by stirring the conspiracy shit pile.
Probably because half of the politicians over the past 40 years are on some list of child fuckers
