By Steven Bradley
Jeffrey Epstein is dead but the web he operated within is very much alive. And while many are only now awakening to the scale and depth of his network, it’s clear that what we’re dealing with is not a partisan issue it’s a crisis of elite power, protected by both parties and hidden behind closed doors.
What’s more disturbing than Epstein’s crimes is how many people in government, finance, media, and intelligence seem deeply invested in making sure we never find out the full truth.
This should alarm everyone not just conservatives, and not just progressives. Because when unaccountable power is protected by secrecy, the public loses all control, and our so-called democracy becomes little more than theater.
I say this as the author of Subverting the Republic, a book that critiques the 17th Amendment, Citizens United, and the century-long drift away from true representative government. But what I’ve found is that the same structures that broke our political system also protect predators like Epstein and allow the most corrupt among us to move between public office and private influence without consequence.
Some on the Left are now raising serious questions: Why are Epstein’s clients still unnamed? Why are court documents redacted or sealed? Why has there been so little movement toward real accountability? Those are the right questions and they echo the same frustrations many of us on the Right have voiced for years.
This isn’t about defending one party or attacking the other. In fact, if there’s one thing the Epstein case reveals, it’s that Republicans and Democrats alike have trafficked in power at the expense of truth. What’s needed now is not more partisan spin it’s courage. Because the full truth of Epstein’s network might not just embarrass a few politicians it could threaten the entire foundation of elite influence in this country.
That’s exactly why I submitted an amicus brief to the U.S. Supreme Court in the JD Vance campaign finance case. That case, while focused on individual donation limits, cuts to the heart of a much larger problem: a political system awash in hidden money, shielded by court rulings, and dominated by a permanent donor class that operates above the law.
Epstein, Citizens United, the 17th Amendment, the intelligence community’s overreach these are not isolated scandals. They are symptoms of a system that no longer serves the people it claims to represent.
But here’s the good news: the American people are waking up. Left, Right, and Independent alike we are beginning to see that the real divide isn’t between red and blue, but between the powerful and the rest of us.
So let’s not waste this moment by turning it into another tribal fight. Let’s press for transparency for the unsealing of names, for full investigations, for accountability without exception. Let’s support real reform, even if it makes “our side” uncomfortable.
Because if we can’t unite around the simple idea that no one — no one — is above the law, then we’ve already lost the Republic.
Let’s not let that happen.
Steven Bradley is a Texas-based author and constitutional originalist. His latest book, “Subverting the Republic: How the 17th Amendment and Citizens United Corrupted the Balance of American Government,” is available on Amazon now.
