It's hard to take in all the horrific news of the past week alone. As if the first months of this regime had not already been defined by a relentless torrent of bad news and outright monstrosities, this week saw the formerly Supreme Court of the United States give the orange man carte Blanche to dismantle the federal government. In the same week, we've already also seen mounted military incursions into Los Angeles– and all this before the recently passed big ugly bill snatches healthcare from tens of millions of Americans and makes ICE a nationwide secret police with a budget to operate within the United States that dwarfs the budget of most countries’ militaries.
Meanwhile, the White House is playing defense against their own political base. They now claim that Jeffery Epstein, the famous pedophile with a network of powerful and wealthy friends, including none other than the Donald himself, never had a secret client list. For those playing along at home, this is the same Epstein who had been the subject of intense fascination by the very same conspiracy theorists who now make up this administration. Dan Bongino in particular profited from speculation about Epstein's relationships and the circumstances of his death, along with many other conspiracy theories.
Don't get me wrong: Epstein's death is suspicious, especially since the cameras trained on his cell were not functioning for one reason or another when he died. I can understand how the speculation could take off in every direction from there. I also don't doubt that this man, who was arguably the world's most famous pedophile, was good friends with Donald Trump. We've all seen the video of them partying together and we've all heard the clips in which DJT had lusted after his own daughter and bragged about assaulting women. The fact that he became so defensive when pressed about the “Epstein file” this week doesn't exactly seem like the behavior of an innocent man either.
It's not really the circumstances of this one case that matter. It's the fact that people who rode hype and more often than not, misinformation, exploited their audiences for profit and political power. Now that they're in power and can't deliver the constant stream of speculation to their base or the conclusion to the story they've told for years, there could be a rift growing. I'm not terribly optimistic in the short run. The fever has yet to break for adherents within the core of the cult. Yet every time the fictions they've heard come crashing against reality, the more the illusion cracks.
One disagreement with the leader won't be enough. It will take many successive acts that bring intense hardship and disillusionment. Their dear leader will never make their lives easier. He'll never bring back the manufacturing jobs they lost somewhere between Reagan and Clinton. He'll never replace the Affordable Care Act with something bigger and better. He's already taken the healthcare they had, even if they don't know if yet. Even on something as relatively small by comparison as this one, admittedly horrific criminal case, he can't deliver. They won't admit it now, and they may never. But their devotion will eventually prove to be more conditional than their leader ever believed.
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