Trump cabinet meeting
New Republic Deputy Editor Jason Linkins says Democrats must brace themselves for a much bigger enemy than Jeffrey Epstein if they want to truly show the public they are taking on U.S. corruption.
“The time to pummel these crooks is nigh, and they needn’t be precious about it,” Linkins said. “Think of it like this: Trumpism is the culmination of a crooked scheme that began nearly a half-century ago, in which the rich and powerful looted our wealth and tore up the civic fabric of this nation. Yes, like the Epstein affair suggests, it really is one big thieving cabal of plutocratic reprobates that has done us dirty. There is an opportunity now for Democrats with guts to crush these scumbags, and take back what they stole.”
Linkins said a massive partywide attack on the root of corruption must also include deep scrutiny inside the Democratic Party itself if the public is to be convinced that Democrats are serious about this.
“Conservatives have darkly warned their liberal counterparts: ‘Be careful what you wish for; what if this implicates a bunch of crusty old Democrats?’ To which I say, ‘Don’t threaten me with a good time,’” Linkins said. “As I’ve watched the Epstein story unravel across the media — through the shouting of lawmakers and the flood of tawdry emails dumped in the press — I’ve not been able to ignore how it’s all one big pile of rot at the center of polite society.”
Linkins said he is “less worried about whether some Democratic Party luminary catches an Epstein stray and more concerned about whether Democrats bungle the opportunity to attack these corrupt arrangements and the presidential administration that has made them its North Star.”
The iron for this, said Linkins, is “particularly hot” right now with the American public.
“A fresh Reuters/Ipsos poll released Wednesday found that Trump’s approval ratings had hit startling new lows, with respondents particularly “unhappy about his handling of the high cost of living and the investigation into the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.”
Epstein and the economy are the “twin albatrosses around Trump’s neck,” said Linkins, but the question remains whether Democrats “will have the stomach and the sense to exploit both avenues to Trump’s ruin.”
“It may not seem like a problem, but Democrats seem pathologically averse to multitasking, which explains why they’re making the salience of grocery prices their priority to the exclusion of all other matters,” Linkins said. “So monomaniacal is this approach that at various times over the past year, Democratic lawmakers have called other concerns “distractions”—up to and including Trump’s rampaging paramilitary forces.”
Abandoning the moment would be a travesty considering mounting public disgust and anger. According to the most recent NPR/PBS News Marist poll, Democrats have attained a 14-point lead over the GOP on the generic congressional ballot.
Read the New Republic report at this link.