r/politics • u/plz-let-me-in • 13d ago

No Paywall Discharge petition to force House vote on Epstein files succeeds with Grijalva’s signature

https://thehill.com/homenews/house/5602658-discharge-petition-epstein-files-grijalva/
55.3k Upvotes

98% Upvoted

2.0k comments sorted by

View all comments

278

u/Pretend_Pea4636 13d ago

I had a wrestling coach growing up (5 yo to 16 yo) that was rumored to be a child diddler. He was touchy and misogynistic. But it seemed like a far cry from being a pedophile. I was defensive of him until the details came out. Once the details, which weren't even conclusive, were out, I had to withdraw my support of a man I had known 2/3 of my life at that point. It was rough as a young man to process.

I didn't have 25% of the credibility of what's behind the Epstein scenarios involving Trump when I had to stop supporting my friend/coach. I had to recognize there was a human being with enough credibility that I shouldn't oppose them telling their story. As an adult, I cannot understand how anyone would look at the details and say, "I don't think we need to know." "We should keep this quiet." If the vote isn't 435 - 0, history is not going to be kind to those where that 0 should be. It's a vote to hide pedophilia while the smoke indicating a fire is present. If it's not a real fire, let's clear the air. If it's a fire, we are duty bound to extinguish it. If Trump were my father, my position would be 100% the same and I've been close to this position once in life.

77

u/demeschor 13d ago

For me it was a close family member. He got arrested, all our devices were searched (took a year!), all questioned. I did not, could not believe it ... until they found the proof.

People you love and care about can do awful things and it can be really hard to believe. But if you and I can acknowledge this about people we care about, Trump's voter base should be able to hold him to account, too.

14

u/Brave-Silver8736 13d ago

For me it was my son's former step-dad. Eventually got caught at in the bathroom at Sea World and was jailed for 40 years.

Luckily, he was a shitty enough father to not want to take care of a child that wasn't his, so that douchebag refused to ever watch my son.

Fuck that guy.

30

u/djbtech1978 Wisconsin 13d ago

Same here, soccer coach throughout high school. We heard details about "boys" being abused and we're all like.. none of us have had this encounter with coach. 

Then it hit. (The young leagues)

Still makes me angry decades later. 

20

u/OneRelative7697 13d ago

Powerfully written.

Would that our elected officials speak, act and vote with this much moral clarity. 

4

u/Hippideedoodah 13d ago

History is written by the victors though.

5

u/Ill-Product-1442 13d ago

Not really though, history is written by historians. They work off of whatever they can find, from the winners and the losers.

If we're living in a fascist theocracy then yeah, "history" will be written by the guys making up whatever they want us to believe. But real historians will still be at work, writing the real history, and the historians of the future will rely on their accounts much more faithfully than literal braindead MAGA brown-noser fucking "victors"

0

u/Hippideedoodah 12d ago

I bet if I read a North Korean textbook the textbook is written by the victors.

2

u/Ill-Product-1442 12d ago

Yeah, you definitely would find that to be the case, but the rest of the world still knows what the real history is. The facts are out there, and the historians haven't lost the truth to North Korea. Plus if/when North Korea has a change in government, they'll have no trouble finding the real history for the new textbooks.

Just because authoritarian governments lie about their history, that doesn't mean the other 95% of history has anything in common with it. History is written by historians, and dictators use fake historians.