The cracks in the foundation: this system failure was by design

There’s an increasingly pervasive sentiment that arresting and prosecuting every person who committed crimes in the Epstein Files would cause our government and our economy to collapse. Even the overly redacted and not-fully-released Epstein files reveal a ruling class that refuses to play by the same morality, laws, or basic decency that the rest of us do. This impunity and vileness is the foundation of the system, but it doesn’t have to be. In order to move forward, though, we have to understand where we’ve been.

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How did we get here?

The oligarchical “democracy” in which we currently live is not a flaw or deviation from the country the founding fathers imagined. Our government was built exclusively by wealthy, white elites who believed it was their god-given right to own and enslave other people. They instituted a system that kept power in the hands of the few at the expense of the many. Women, people of color, poor people, all had to fight for their basic civil rights, and continue to do so. The institutions that the founding fathers built continue to operate in much the same way that they were designed to 250 years ago. There is no institution that can successfully represent the needs of a country as diverse as we are now if it is operating as it did when it only represented wealthy white men.

There is no clearer example of the ongoing flaws of the U.S. system than Citizens United. This Supreme Court decision legalized corruption in Congress and paved the way for corporations to be able to buy politicians’ decisions. We are now faced with a reality in which the same corporations and oligarchs pay for both Democrats and Republicans — meaning we no longer have a two-party system. Both Democrats and Republicans are listed in the Epstein Files. The problem isn’t rooted in one party over the other, but the narrative we are given is one of ideological division.

Despite this, the majority of U.S. voters agree on major policies. 63% say abortion should be legal in all or most cases. 68% support same-sex marriage. 56% support the adoption of policies that protect trans folks from discrimination. But our elected leaders don’t match this data, and laws protecting these rights are few and far between.

The greatest divide we currently experience is not political ideology, it’s access to power and wealth.