Sometimes the Cure is Worse Than the Disease

As much as Trump keeps trying to throw out new distractions to take the public’s mind off of the Jeffrey Epstein files he’s intrinsically involved with, he’s overlooking two huge things.

The first is that the Epstein story is being pushed by MAGA conspiratorialists, and being conspiracy theorists) they won't forget about it and will not return the story to public attention after the distraction ends, but won’t drop it until the end of time.  And they are who matter most to Trump, since they are his core base who he and the party can’t afford to feel lied to (as many do now) and not vote in the Mid-Terms.

And the second is that the Epstein scandal is not the story that is most problematic to Trump and the party in the Mid-Terms – and all of that matters most to Democrats (which motivates them the most) and to Independents who tend to decide elections.  And support among Independents has been plummeting from the MAGOP.

And it’s this second matter, all the other huge problems that is furiously angering Democrats and Independents, that is such a long, deep, and enraging list that to think this is what faces Trump and MAGOPs if he can even get away from Epstein (if his MAGA conspiratorialist will let him, which they won’t) must be a nightmarish hell for them.

And the fact that Trump and MAGOPs aren’t going around exclaiming triumphant paeans in support of what is the party’s only signature achievement, their self-proclaimed “Big Beautiful Budget Bill”, but virtually running away from it, even to the point of directing members to not hold Town Hall meetings, speaks volumes loudly of all that they have to be concerned of, even more than Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell.  Which is a high hurdle to get over.

The other day, a friend sent me a list of just some of the issues that come close to making his head explode, anxious for Democrats to, as he put it, “immediately, vociferously and eloquently find their voice to condemn these monsters and demand we change course under new, sane leadership.”

That list, which is just some of what Trump and MAGOPs have to face if they do somehow distract away from Epstein, Maxwell and Trump, includes --

Persecution of immigrants based not on misdeeds but color

Building of inhuman concentration camps to house immigrants without due process

Purge of the FBI to seek revenge against investigators of the insurrection

Tariffs sending prices soaring

Firing government officials who report inconvenient facts of Trump’s economic failures

Shredding federal agencies making us less safe in the air and on land

Destruction of state congressional maps to maintain control of Congress without having to win a majority of the votes

Persecution of politicians who opposed Trump's Insurrection and took steps to hold him accountable

Sending the U.S. military into American cities, for no discernible reason.

Transfer of the national wealth from the working class to the billionaire class

Ballooning of the national debt in order to give tax cuts to the wealthiest Americans.

Stripping the working class of medical insurance to subsidize the tax cuts to the wealthiest Americans.

Cutting staff and resources for weather research and natural disaster protection.

Defunding $500 million of research on mRNA vaccines, including those that saved millions of lives during COVID, and others moving towards effectiveness against cancer.

Cutting billions of dollars from medical research at universities, which would benefit all Americans and the world, while driving scientists away to other countries.

Firing every member of a CDC vaccine advisory panel and all members of an advisory panel on cancer who help create health and safety protocols for the country.

And all of that – and more – is what’s waiting around the distractions if Trump and MAGOPs can get past (as my friend put it) “Government-wide cover-up to protect a president's involvement with pedophiles”.

The thing is, making this all the more problematic for Trump and MAGOPs enabling him is that, as I watch the galling news, the one thing rolling around in my mind is that – with a 37% approval as the starting point – none of this is already going over well with the public.  If Trump’s approval was at, say 48% or in the low 50s, I could see enough of the public accepting some of this.  But when you’ve already plummeted down to 37%, and none of the problems people say they don’t approve of are being addressed, but instead you’re adding new outrages and exacerbating these foundational problems – it has to be terrible for him.

And all the more so because it’s not like Trump is surrounded by qualified competent people who can help get him out of these massive potholes in the road he’s paved to hell.  These are the people who helped create and enable the problems.  They’re in their jobs because they will agree with and support Trump in everything.  Who of his team is going to help him?  Pete Hegseth?  Kristi Noem? Pam Bondi?  Kash Patel?  Kari Lake?  Robert Kennedy Jr.?  Linda McMahon?  Stephen Miller?  Tom Homan?  Who??

And add to this that Trump has dementia, which is degenerative.  And we just saw him wandering on the roof of the White House, dancing and waving his arms to the press below.

This is what Trump is desperately trying to get to, by doing all he can to distract the public from Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell.  A scandal that his conspiracy-minded base will not let go away as long as the files are not released.  And Trump cannot let them be released because he’s in them.  Unless he has his name redacted everywhere – which news reports say the FBI did throughout the files.  And so, if Trump does ever decide to release the files, comforted that his name has been redacted out everywhere… when every conspiratorialist sees names redacted from anything, it only ratchets their conspiracy theories to an even higher level.

But the Epstein scandal is not the important issue – sorry, issues – that are most important to the American public.  It’s just the foundation on which all those massive other critical problems have built up and are piled on.

Those are the problems that matter.  Those are the damaging problems facing Trump that have him down to a horrific 37% approval already, only half a year into his term.  Those are the problems for which he has no one to help him out of.  Epstein/Maxwell is just the paper tray teetering as it gives way under their oppressive weight.

But this is not about Trump.  We know who he is.  This is about the MAGOPs in Congress who enable him and who are the ones who literally pass the laws that are Trump’s policies.

Distractions?  Trump’s whole life is a distraction.  That’s the hole he has dug for himself his entire life.

Sometimes the cure is worse than the disease. 

Especially when you’ve gotten rid of the vaccines and fired all the doctors.