Sex rings and sexual abuse

Republicans are fighting over a dark conspiracy that's ripping them apart.

“I've known Jeff for fifteen years. Terrific guy. He's a lot of fun to be with. It is even said that he likes beautiful women as much as I do, and many of them are on the younger side. No doubt about it — Jeffrey enjoys his social life."—Donald Trump on Jeffery Epstein, 2002

This whole Epstein thing took me by surprise. I thought it was just a fringe obsession of the Q-anon set. It turns out that it’s the obsession of the entire MAGA movement. Now, it’s causing infighting at the highest levels of government. Attorney General Pam Bondi and FBI Director Kash Patel are at each other’s throats. Dan Bongino, who built his career pushing conspiracy theories, is threatening to resign as Patel’s wing man.

It’s so much fun. It’s also bizarre. So much is screwed up in the world and these folks can’t stop obsessing over fictitious international sex rings involving the most powerful people in the world.

People like Patel, Bondi, and Bongino built an expectation that Epstein had a list of people who shared his proclivity for young girls and it was all powerful Democrats. I’m not sure if they haven’t seen the photos and videos of Trump and Epstein or whether they’ve just rationalized them away. As I’ve said before, the modern GOP is built on the foundation of people who can be fooled all of the time.

Like every conspiracy theory, though, there’s a hint of truth. Epstein and Trump were part of a culture of hard-partying rich men who saw women and girls as luxury goods to be consumed like fine wine or high-end accessories like sports cars or bling. They were the envy of young social climbers who imagined themselves partying at Studio 54 with a Rolex on their wrist and beautiful young woman on their arm. Age didn’t matter as long as they were gorgeous with great bodies. These attitudes were largely tolerated, if grudgingly, by the larger society.

When Donald Trump made his statement about Jeffery Epstein liking “beautiful women as much as I do, and many of them are on the younger side,” he was talking about sex, not women as people. He obviously didn’t think anything was wrong with Epstein having sex with girls and he didn’t think the audience would, either. He says it lasciviously.

Historically, our cultural attitudes about young girls and sex are complex. Girls were often seen as ready for sex and marriage not longer after puberty. Loretta Lynn was 15 when she married a man just back from fighting in World War II. Aretha Franklin gave birth at the age of 12. Jerry Lee Lewis married his 13-year-old cousin. The late singer Aaliyah married R. Kelly, who’s now in prison for sex abuse, when she was 15-years-old. Those incidents might have raised eyebrows, but few called them sex abuse at the time.

In North Carolina, we had a debate a few years ago about raising the age of marriage from 14 to 16. Conservatives opposed the measure because they worried girls under 16 who became pregnant would end up raising them as single parents instead of in a marriage. However, one statistic noted that 93% of the time, minors married adults, not other minors. The 14-year-old girls were probably marrying their abusers.

In the early 1990s, I did neglect and abuse investigations. Most sex abuse cases involved relatives or family friends, not sex trafficking rings. Most of the abusers were losers, not high-powered, affluent men. Pedophiles who seek out young people for grooming and sex are more likely to be found in scouts organizations and church groups than banks or brokerages.

The GOP fear mongers on Fox News and talk radio who created these dark fantasies played on the fears of parents and others susceptible to conspiracy theories to score political points. They cast powerful Democrats as evil sex fiends, trafficking children in a secret cabal. Today, those TV and radio celebrities are members of the administration and the man with the closest ties to known sex abuser Jeffery Epstein is their boss.

Watching them trying to stuff the genie back into the bottle is hilarious. They’re all contradicting stuff they said on tape or on air just a few months ago. They’re also pointing fingers and drawing knives. It might get bloody.

Trump, for his part, is trying desperately to change the channel. He’s threatening to strip Rosie O’Donnell of her citizenship. He’ll say anything to make the people who will believe anything look the other way.

As for sexual abuse, it’s very real, but the conspiracy theorists in the GOP are looking in the wrong places. The abusers are more likely to be found where vulnerable kids seek refuge like church, sports, or scouting than in the Halls of Congress. That said, they should probably check in the White House.