I’m pretty comfortable saying that the last thing America needed right about now was a walk down Memory Lane to Epstein Island. So of course, that’s exactly what we got. And consistent with the Zeitgeist, we’ve got clowns to the left of us and jokers on the right as we try to make sense of it.
That’s why, for the millionth time, I’m so glad we have National Review. I’m eternally grateful to be a part of the country’s best community of conservative writers and readers, dedicated to the proposition that we can have a strong point of view, we can take in any controversy predisposed to want what’s best for the nation, and, with all that, determined to understand the facts — what actually happened. Not to understand it so we can spin it for our side. To understand it because the first real step to fixing what ails us is always to grasp exactly what we’re dealing with.
That’s our mission. I hope you will be characteristically generous in supporting our work by contributing to our summer webathon. It’s just a fact: We can’t do it without you.
This history of the modern conservative movement, in which our founder, William F. Buckley Jr., was such a trailblazer, is that there are solid conservative solutions, steeped in the American tradition and its Judeo-Christian roots, to most any problem. But the first step is always to diagnose accurately what the problem is. That gets hard to do when self-promoters and hacks — naturally, in these vertiginous times, we call them “influencers” — labor to sell the country on a fantasy version of events that portrays their opposition as not just wrong but sinister.
The Epstein situation is not a very important problem in the scheme of things — just a loud one. Still, it’s a good object lesson. One group tells you there’s nothing to see here, as if a trafficking scandal involving the abuse of teenage girls could ever be nothing; its opponents tell you it’s the most massive cover-up of all time, as if an investigation that resulted in two extensive indictments, a lengthy trial, ancillary civil cases, and mounds of discovery could plausibly lend itself to a massive cover-up.
As usual, both versions of events are distortions. As we’ve explained and reported at NR, it’s an instance of a few excessive Trump partisans using the Epstein saga to raise dark conspiracy theories about their political opposition, only to be predictably unable to back up their claims when the tide turned and they were suddenly running the government. It’s another instance of anti-Trump partisans opportunistically speculating that these Trump administration officials are concealing evidence to protect the president — even though Democrats were running the government for the last four years, had access to all the Epstein files, were trying every minute of that time to make criminal cases against Donald Trump, and would gleefully have used any Epstein ammo if there were anything there to prosecute.
That is to say: It’s an instance of political freak-out, sprinkled with government incompetence. It’s a reminder — as we’ve been reminded through years of lawfare, the weaponization of the justice system for partisan ends — that law enforcement works best when it quietly goes about its important work: when it follows the rules against politicizing investigations, and when it withholds public commentary unless and until its ready to file charges — giving accused people the full protection of due process, not tarring them with innuendo in the court of public opinion.
That’s the American way. At NR, we’re going to keep being its champions. If you appreciate this work and want to see more of it, please consider giving to our drive. Any amount is helpful, from $5 to $5,000, and goes directly to supporting our exertions in the American cause.
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