Photograph Source: Geoff Livingston – CC BY-SA 4.0
We are so hooked, people, on the Jeffrey Epstein spectacle that Donald Trump might win, to become America’s first lifetime president. Thank God he’s old and creaky, but that’s what he’s after.
How could Trump win? He is winning, folks, he’s winning. That’s why we’ve been in the streets protesting. But we are so transfixed by the Epstein scandal we’ve lost momentum in opposing Trump’s destruction of democracy. That is the peril.
Trump won’t be hurt by the Epstein scandal, no matter what, in any way that counts.
The prospective political cost will be no more than trifling. Trump has sexually assaulted so many women it’s easy to picture him raping teenaged girls. That is stomach churning, but his 70 million voters were indifferent about the assaulted women; they’re not likely next time to care about the girls.
OK, then, how about criminal prosecution? Ghislaine Maxwell was convicted of violating four federal statutes:18 U.S. Code 1591, 2324(a), 371, and 2423 (e). The case was brought against her by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York. If Trump is exposed as a child rapist—when “all the files are released”—do you think the Southern District of New York will bring charges against him, as well? Yes? No. The SDNY is overseen by Pam Bondi.
So nothing in the Epstein scandal can lay a finger on Trump.
OK again. How about the midterm election next year? Is there any guarantee we’ll have one? It’s a no-brainer that Trump might declare martial law and suspend it. Or the Red states might succeed in their conscientious efforts to rig it.
Trump isn’t smart enough to stoke the Epstein scandal on purpose, to smokescreen his drive toward dictatorship. But the profit-greedy media flourish on spectacle, and Epstein is a goldmine to exploit. The cable networks—notably CNN and MSNBC—talk about almost nothing else: ratings shoot skyward, advertising dollars follow. (Fox News talks about everything else.)
So let’s boycott ‘em. Watch PBS or leave your tube turned off. The ratings will plummet, and they’ll get back to what’s truly important: Trump’s rampage.
That’s the first step. Then take to the streets again, urging as many family members, friends, and neighbors as you can to join in. We need to mobilize millions, and then millions more. Volunteer with activist groups or send them some money: Indivisible, 50501, ACLU, Third Act, Human Rights Campaign, Women’s March, Common Cause.
The nation remains in great peril. The protest needs to snowball. Stay focussed on that. Only that.
The post The Peril of Spectacle, Especially Jeffrey Epstein’s appeared first on CounterPunch.org.