In my Minneapolis youth, or yoot as might be said in various New York City enclaves where I currently live, my family was Democratic, and the family of my best friend, who lived next door, was Republican. Back then, the fact that my family was Democratic and his family was Republican had no effect whatsoever on our friendship or the friendship of our parents. We merely embraced different political philosophies, and there wasn't antipathy or the threat of a fight to the death in the Octagon, where tapping out was verboten.
Unfortunately, at this point in time, even child trafficking and abuse have become a politicized Right versus Left issue.
In November of 2023, Senate Democrats went after Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas for not reporting the various junkets he took that were subsidized by Republican megadonor Harlan Crow. I realize that Thomas is a darling of the right who withstood a "high-tech lynching" to become a Supreme Court justice. Thomas, however, is the subject of a blog I wrote, and he is, in fact, a seriously depraved individual, misogynist, and liar who's declared war on the American people.
During the Senate hearing on whether or not to authorize subpoenas for Thomas's subsidized junkets, Senator Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) called on the Senate Judiciary Committee to issue a subpoena against the estate of Jeffrey Epstein to obtain a list of passengers who traveled aboard his infamous plane—"the Lolita Express." Blackburn's call for a subpoena was a tit-for-tat ploy. She had years to call for such a subpoena, but she only made that demand in the wake of the Senate's hearing to subpoena records related to Clarence Thomas. For people who want to see justice in the Epstein case, which includes thousands of survivors and their advocates, Blackburn seemed like a beacon of hope, but, in actuality, she had cynically politicized child sexual abuse.
I initially thought that Blackburn's ploy was the only effort by our federal lawmakers to investigate Epstein et al., but I was wrong. Five Democratic members of the House's Committee on Oversight and Accountability—Carolyn Maloney (D-NC), Jackie Speier (D-CA), Lois Frankel (D-FL), Jamie Raskin (D-MA), and Debbie Wasserman-Schultz (D-FL)—attempted to investigate the malfeasance involved in the Epstein case in December of 2019. But their investigation was apparently quashed.
Four years later, on December 11, 2023, Congressman Tim Burchett (R-TN) wrote a letter to James Comer, who was the Chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability, requesting "documents you deem appropriate and necessary to determine who are among the scumbags Epstein counted as clients and highlight any who are or previously were government officials." Burchett's appeal for an investigation also went nowhere.
Despite the Byzantine machinations of Speaker of the House Mike Johnson and the Trump administration, Thomas Massie, a Republican, and Ro Khanna, a Democrat, came together and forced a vote on a "discharge petition" for release of the Epstein files, which bypassed the House's leadership and committee chairs and forced a vote on the House floor. When a majority vote on the discharge petition became inevitable on the House floor, both Republicans and Democrats in the House and Senate overwhelmingly voted for the Epstein Files Transparency Act, which was signed into law by President Donald Trump.
Though the Trump administration initially fought the Epstein Files Transparency Act tooth and nail, it should be noted that the Epstein coverup has been perpetrated by four administrations—George W. Bush, Barack Obama, Joseph Biden, and now Donald Trump. Two of the administrations have been Republican and two have been Democratic. The Epstein coverup has been, and continues to be, a bipartisan effort.
The Epstein Files Transparency Act showed us that a near two-decade coverup can be partially eroded when Democrats and Republicans work together in the best interests of our America. However, the Right and Left have become fatally balkanized by our politicians and the media, and Americans have become easy prey to a strategy that was codified by Sun Tzu in the Art of War circa 500 B.C.: divide and conquer. "If your foe's troops are united, the goal is to separate them so they cannot support each other," wrote Sun Tzu. Jesus also chimes in on divide and conquer in Luke 11:17: "Any kingdom divided against itself will be ruined, and a house divided against itself will fall."
The Romans had a motto for divide and conquer: "Divide et impera." However, the motto was not of Roman origin. According to ancient lore, Philip II of Macedon, the father of Alexander the Great, used this motto as he conquered the independent Greek city-states by playing each against the other via diplomacy, marriage, political leverage, and military might.
I was on the Shawn Ryan Show, and in the Comments section, I took heat for the statements I made about the respective theologies of QAnon and Woke and how they've divided Americans. I also realize that many "conservatives" tune into the Shawn Ryan Show, and they took umbrage at me comparing QAnon and Woke. And I was even accused of being a deplorable, dreaded liberal.
I should mention that I've been swimming in the cesspool of American politics and its concomitant blackmail for 23 years. Given the corruption I've encountered, I currently find it impossible to vote for a Republican or Democrat. So, I don't have a dog in that fight. My beliefs are also an amalgam of conservative and progressive.
The theologies of QAnon and Woke have exacerbated that ever-widening Right/Left chasm. In fact, I recently met someone on the Right who said America needs a two-state solution.
QAnon was ostensibly initiated by a "high-ranking government" official, but, in actuality, it was most likely the cynical creation of Jim and Ron Watkins. According to QAnon theology, the Democratic political elite are Satanists who are abducting and killing children, and Donald Trump will save all the children. Over the course of Trump's presidency, none of the many perpetrators in the Jeffrey Epstein child trafficking network have even been arrested, with the exception of Ghislaine Maxwell.
Extreme elements of Woke theology on the Left have further widened the chasm between the Right and the Left. Incarcerated men have, in fact, identified themselves as women and sexually assaulted women prisoners. Men identifying as women in various sporting competitions is also an outgrowth of Woke. Post-pubescent males have 15 times the amount of circulating testosterone as post-pubescent females, which translates into a 10%–12% performance advantage in running and swimming and a 20% advantage in jumping events. Needless to say, these outgrowths of Woke are insane.
The vast majority of Republicans don't believe that the Democratic elites are Satanists abducting children, and the vast majority of Democrats don't believe that men should be incarcerated in women's jails and prisons, and they also don't believe that men should compete as women in sporting competitions.
But these extreme examples of the Right and the Left have been accentuated by politicians and the media, further driving a seemingly irreconcilable wedge between the Right and the Left. As of August 2026, the Congressional approval rate is 15%, which demonstrates that 87% of Americans do not think that Congress is acting in their best interests. The Right blames Congressional representatives on the Left for all the problems that are currently arising in our society and, of course, vice versa.
Representatives Massie and Khanna have demonstrated that real change can occur when Republicans and Democrats work together.
