My 3-point theory on why Epstein could very well be Trump's undoing and bring about the end of MAGA.

[Pacifist Patriot]

I'm not going to believe it until I see it, but hear me out.

My apologies if this is a duplicate. I'm in the middle of an inter-state move (finally escaping Florida on Monday) and overwhelmed at work so haven't had a chance to watch much news or dig in at DU. So this could be repetitive.

I think these three things are all true and intersecting.

1. Stoking fears of pedophilia has been in the GOP playbook for quite some time, they created this pivotal issue that is shared by virtually everyone in the MAGA base regardless of their main reason for adoring their cult leader.
a) Transgender people in a public bathroom? Might molest your child.
b) Drag queens doing story hour at the library? Might molest your child.
c) Basements that don't exist in a DC pizza parlor? Molesting your kids
d) Only Democratic senator to be elected in Alabama in eons? Ran against a known pedophile. Lost when he wasn't running against one.
This might force them to see something they don't want to see, and once they see it, they can't unsee it.

2. Some folks who have been burned by Trump or are finally starting to see him for what he is have in this a convenient way to "save face." Weak as far as we're concerned, but it is easier for them to point to this reason for abandoning him than saying, "I was an idiot and believed his lies."

3. Elected Republicans and party operatives who are not Trumpists have a very convenient way to undermine him without having to publicly rebuke him. I do firmly believe there are Republicans fully supporting this effort and some who are quietly cheering it on.

Time will tell, but because of these three things I don't think this is going to fade away into obscurity like his other preponderance of crimes.

[Initech]

1. Watching MAGA and Fox do a full 180 on sex traffickers and predators has been absolutely wild.

They'll do anything to keep their precious cult leader and his idiots in power.

[Pacifist Patriot]

10. I am so grateful I'm not seeing that

Seriously?!?!

[CrispyQ]

2. I hadn't considered your second point, but it has merit, especially as the economy starts to tank even more.

Hopefully, there are tons looking for a way out of the cult. They'll never get that orange stain off, though.

[unblock]

3. Add a 4th point. Donnie went too far and pissed off the wrong people

His entire image and political success has been built on many people covering for him. He's always needed the media to gloss over scandals, promote his blatant lies and b.s. as a plausible political view, etc.

Since retaking office, he's pissed off musk, Putin, and the media (whining about "fake news" and attacking individual reporters is one thing; suing cbs and the Wall Street journal is another thing entirely).

I think they needed him to renew the tax cuts, now they see him as too big a risk to their businesses and such. So they're finally unearthing the Epstein stories they buried years ago.

[Pacifist Patriot]

9. 4th point well taken!

[Blue Full Moon]

4. Most pedophiles are republican.

[yardwork]

5. Interesting points.

Adding some additional thoughts...

Point 1. I agree that this is a very big deal to MAGA. It's the number one wedge issue to get people to vote Republican. Remember the Latin America sex trafficking film that was released a few years ago? That was heavily marketed to evangelical right wing churches. (The director or somebody involved with it turned out to be an actual sec trafficker but that was ignored by MAGA.)

For more than a decade many Americans have been convinced that Democrats are sex traffickers and only Trump can fix it.

3. With the WSJ articles on this it seems that wealthy Republicans may feel that Trump has run his course and it's time to replace him with Vance.

[EYESORE 9001]

6. I have an addition to point 2 that you may consider

People don’t respond well to feeling betrayed - and nobody feels it quite as strongly as those with borderline personality traits. I’m neither a statistician nor a demographer nor a psychologist, but from appearances alone, that execrable ‘movement’ has their fair share of borderline types.

[Ocelot II]

7. Q Anon and MAGA have been obsessed with pedophilia for a long time

and I'm not sure where it came from. Of course everyone regards pedophilia as a heinous crime, and the many instances of coverups, notably but not exclusively by the Catholic Church, have made people understandably suspicious of institutions and situations that allow sexual predators to abuse children. During the '80s this concern led to many false accusations of molestation and even Satanic rituals against day-care providers. I suppose the naturally clandestine nature of institutional child abuse makes conspiracy theories like Pizzagate inevitable, but it's interesting that a legitimate concern for the safety of children has become an obsession of the MAGA crowd, to the point where they've created irrational fears of drag queens, trans people, anyone outside the presumed norm of gender appearance - assuming all such people must be pedophiles, which of course they are not. I suspect the psychological underpinnings of a lot of this fear is similar to those which gave rise to the day care panic of 30 years ago. But the actual, real, documented pedophilia of Epstein and Maxwell is a different matter altogether, and adding Trump to that mix is probably creating some serious cognitive dissonance - and maybe that's why the GOP is now in disarray and had to take an Epstein Recess so they could decide how they are supposed to reconcile their horror of pedophilia with their love of Trump.

[raccoon]

8. From your keyboard to Dog's ears.