There’s a reason why powerful people in America remain above the law

Here in America, before the royal formerly known as Prince Andrew was arrested in the UK, Reuters reported the results of a new public survey. Ipsos, the pollster, found nearly 70 percent of Americans believe the system is rigged, allowing elites to act with impunity.Reuters:Some 69 percent of respondents in the four-day poll, which concluded on Monday, said their views were captured “very well” or “extremely well” by a statement that the Epstein files “show that powerful people in the U.S. are rarely held accountable for their actions.” Then came news this morning of Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, the brother of King Charles III, being arrested “on suspicion of misconduct in public office” – what American media might call insider trading. Andrew allegedly shared “confidential trade reports” with Jeffrey Epstein in 2010 when the former prince was the UK’s special envoy for international trade. Their correspondence was part of the latest cache of Epstein-related emails released by the US Department of Justice.The news appears to be the beginning of a kind of accountability. There’s probably enough evidence for British authorities to bring a massive sex-crimes case against Andrew. But that would be devastating to the king’s image. Better to bring Andrew up on discrete and boring white collar crimes than risk greater public scrutiny of who in the royal family knew about his reputed predilection for underaged girls.In other words, it’s justice through the backdoor, if you can call it justice, but even that is more than anyone can say in America.In Europe, “heads are rolling over the Jeffrey Epstein revelations,” according to Politico earlier this month. A prominent diplomat in Norway was suspended. A member of the British House of Lords was forced to resign. Andrew can no longer be called the Duke of York.The British prime minister apologized for hiring Lord Peter Mandelson as ambassador to the US after it was revealed that Mandelson, in addition to keeping up his relationship with Epstein after Epstein’s 2008 conviction, gave him “sensitive government information.”But the fallout faced by political elites over their association with a convicted sex offender and alleged child-sex trafficker has stood in contrast to the near-total absence of accountability in America. The taint of Epstein can rock the European continent, but not American elites, especially those close to the president of the United States.And, per Reuters, Americans are noticing the difference. We don’t agree on much of anything, but a vast majority of us agree “powerful people in the US are rarely held accountable for their actions”Here, I want to suggest a few things. One, that this and other polls point to a growing awareness of the gathering unfairness that has shaped American life since at least the 2007-2008 financial crisis and proceeding Great Recession. Two, that this awareness has been gaining momentum over those years and has now reached a tipping point. Data journalist G Elliott Morris said the new swing voter is an “anti-system voter.” In his latest, he cites new research identifying “a key bloc of swing voters who distrust both parties, believe elites are corrupt and think the political system is rigged against people like them.”Third, that a majority, or a near-majority, now equates unfairness with Epstein and is opposed to a rigged system that rewards elites, including Donald Trump, while despoiling everyone else.I don’t think voters have a full understanding of the various forces bearing down on them. But unlike when we had mostly abstractions to argue for change, we now have, for the first time in the 21st century, a human face to put on an inhuman system rigged against the people.Here’s how US Senator Jon Ossoff put it recently:“Now you remember, we were told that maga was for working-class Americans. But this is a government of, by and for the ultra rich. It is the wealthiest cabinet ever. This is the Epstein class” (my italics). He went on:They are the elites they pretend to hate. Prices are up. Jobs are going away. Medicaid and school lunches are slashed. Nursing homes are getting defunded. If you’re Steve Bannon and your pitch was Trump for “the forgotten man and woman,” how do you sell any of this? Trump was supposed to fight for the working class. Instead, he’s literally closing rural clinics and hospitals to cut taxes for George Soros and Elon Musk. He was supposed to end globalist world police foreign policy. Instead, we’re doing war-for-oil and nation-building again, and threatening to conquer Greenland. He was supposed to “drain the swamp.” Instead, this is the most corrupt administration of all time and everybody knows it. Everybody knows it.Will there be justice for Epstein’s victims? Will the elites who conspired to bring us despoliation face a jury? Frankly, I doubt it. In South Korea, justice means leaders of insurrections go to prison for life. Here, it means they get criminal immunity to continue their insurrections. That said, there is some hope. As the Democrats prosecute their political case against the president, binding him and his allies ever more tightly to Jeffrey Epstein, they are probably going to end up grinding to dust the reputations of elites associated with his crimes.For instance, Les Wexner. The billionaire former owner of Victoria’s Secret was named in the Epstein files as a “co-conspirator,” though he never faced criminal charges. Epstein managed his fortune until nine months before his 2008 conviction on sex-with-minors charges. This week, House Democrats deposed Wexner as part of their investigation. This is what Robert Garcia, ranking member of the House Oversight Committee, said about Wexner: “We should be very clear that there would be no Epstein island. There would be no Epstein plane. There would be no money to traffic women and girls. Mr. Epstein would not be the wealthy man he was without the support of Les Wexner.”With sufficient time, Les Wexner’s reputation could become collateral damage in the Democrats’ larger fight against Trump and his party. That’s not enough justice. No one should be satisfied.But like the white-collar charges against Andrew for giving Epstein secret trade reports, it is the beginning of a kind of accountability.

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