Running Out of Distractions
What might an increasingly desperate Trump do next?
Even in the deeply divided America of today, there are still things we mostly agree on. We mostly agree that the past year has been a tough one for all Americans. We mostly agree that our economy is bad and getting worse, and we also mostly agree that the war in Iran was a terrible idea, and that it should end immediately. And we are beginning to agree on the subject of Trump’s motives for starting this war; or at least we agree that the reasons he has given us make no sense. And many people on both sides of the political debate are beginning to agree that Trump’s decision to go to war might be motivated by his need to distract us, and his desire to avoid accountability for his role in committing some of the most disgusting crimes any of us have ever heard of.
This newfound American common ground began with the Epstein Files and Trump’s ceaseless efforts to suppress them. It doesn’t matter who you are, who you voted for, who you listen to on the way to work, or where (or even if) you worship on Sundays. We want the Epstein Files released, all of them, and we want them right now. It may be the most unifying topic in America today, and that simple fact is a big problem for our Distractor-in-Chief. He’s facing an American electorate that almost universally agrees on an issue we all deeply care about, and that issue is also one that Trump simply cannot allow us to discuss, for obvious reasons.
For generations, the Epstein Class has remained above the law mostly due to their ability to distract, and even turn regular Americans against each other. As old railroad tycoon Jay Gould once said, “I can always hire one half of the working class to murder the other half.” It’s how the rich control us, and how they always have. It’s the only reason Fox News and most of right-wing media exist. And for the last half century or so, no one and nothing has been able to get above the noise. But today things are different. There is something we want more than we want the anger and division our media feeds us.
We want the files. Democrat, Republican, white, black, left, right … it doesn’t matter. We want the files, and no matter how many bombs get dropped, we will still want the files.
And while this unity is little more than a convenient truce between longtime enemies, it exists, and it isn’t likely to go away anytime soon. I mean, I simply can’t think of anything that could make us stop caring about the horrible crimes committed by rich men who hurt children for decades simply because they thought it would be a good time. We may only be unified by our disgust, but given the fact that we’re facing the decline of democracy itself, I’ll take whatever unity I can get.
But herein lies the problem, and the potential disaster that many are beginning to predict. Trump needs to distract us, but since we’re unified in our desire for accountability, he can’t use his regular tactics. Another racist social media post isn’t going to do the job. Neither is another video of an exploding fishing boat. Every distraction these days has a diminishing return. Every time he spews some nonsense, the effect dulls, and we move back to the thing we care about quicker each time and with greater urgency.
This is why I believe the distractions are escalating. War is the perfect distraction, because it doesn’t hit just a few news cycles, but instead dominates the headlines for as long as the war goes on with new stories of death and destruction every day. This can go on for years. However, this war is hugely unpopular for obvious reasons, and even worse, it isn’t doing the job. And that job isn’t to achieve a political or military outcome, but to keep us from pursuing the Epstein Class and holding them accountable for their crimes.
But it isn’t working. We still want the files, and we want them as much as we ever did before.
This is why I believe we will put troops on the ground in Iran. It’s the next escalation, the next thing our media will see as more important than accountability. But even that won’t last. And after a few news cycles, we will go right back to wanting the files, and we will want them with the same intensity and the same unity we have shown throughout.
So, the question we should all be asking sooner rather than later is “What will Trump do when the next distraction fails like all the others?”
That’s the question that has me losing sleep.
Brett Pransky is a writer, a teacher, a father, and a husband, but rarely in that order. He spends his days amplifying the voices of freedom and democracy as an Editor right here at The Political Voices Network, and he spends his nights trying to fix the world one clever sentence at a time.
The one thing I hope we all learn, many of the uber-rich, aren't, the right people to take political guidance from. I've been trying to teach my adult children, rich people want to keep their money and, use your money to fund everything they want funded. Usually by disinfranchising the lesser of us, taking away essential services like healthcare and food assistance. Everyone needs to know and understand, donnie has made us and the world, less safe.