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.
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 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.
I mean, of course not. Do you really expect them to vote for a liberal?
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’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.
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.
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.
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.
Don’t worry Republicans. Your opposition is the Democratic Party.
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….
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.
Lmao they aren’t. They’re laughing that people keep focusing on trying to use the legal system they own against them.
I’m surprised too, normally they can change to the next outage of the day.
Anyone have the non paywalled content? My usual archive.ph approach isn’t cutting it
The article stops halfway through on these archive sites
Ah oops. I got bored before the paywall lol. Probably need someone to dump the contents that is a paid subscriber.
If I had a nickel for every time I heard the Republicans are imploding, or the Democrats are imploding…
Democrats as usual are staying quiet and not doing anything to use this to win new voters over
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
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.
You live by stirring the conspiracy shit pile, you die by stirring the conspiracy shit pile.
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).
What’s interesting to me is that everyone knows Trump is in there. They’re not protecting Trump, they’re protecting their money supply from other billionaires.
Trump of course is protecting Trump, as always.
