The GOP’s New Single Issue: Elite Impunity

The Republican Party exists to shield elites from facing justice for their crimes. Democrats should respond accordingly.

I don’t know about you, but I’ve been finding it increasingly difficult to concentrate lately. There I’ll be, trying to work, or read, or eat dinner, when the intrusive thought returns: For decades, many of the wealthiest men and women in the world actively participated in the trafficking and rape of children; the powers that be knew what was happening; nobody was held accountable.

Even today, few of Epstein’s enablers are facing consequences—in this country, at least. America’s legal system insists on punishing regular people harshly for even the most minor crimes—or now for the non-crime of simply being an immigrant, or just being someone who looks like an immigrant to one of Trump’s Gestapo thugs. But the rich and powerful spent year after year manifesting nightmares straight out of conspiracy theories, and yet they’ve faced absolutely zero consequences for these depravities. Trump’s DOJ continues redacting the names of abusers. His administration transferred Ghislaine Maxwell to a cushy minimum security prison where she is reportedly waited on hand and foot by prison officials. It looks increasingly likely that the president will grant this convicted teen sex trafficker clemency in exchange for her publicly testifying that Trump—whose name is apparently referenced over one million times in the Epstein files—was not involved in her demonic enterprise. And Republicans in Congress—all but the smallest handful of dissidents, practically all of whom are being driven out of politics for their apostasy—are doing everything they can to protect these monsters.

This story is horrifying. But it’s also clarifying. The primary purpose of the GOP has been laid bare: to shield the wealthy and well-connected from facing justice for their crimes.

In fact, elite impunity seems to be the common thread in practically all the significant policy fights Republicans have picked over the last year. It’s apparent, of course, in every decision of Trump’s Department of Justice. Throwing a sandwich at someone in uniform? Republicans will move heaven and earth to take you down. But engaging in blatantly criminal bribery? The administration has explicitly announced it won’t prosecute corporations for these crimes, or really for any crimes at all.

Elite impunity clearly defines the GOP’s positions on public health. Despite the supposed influence of the Make America Healthy Again movement on the GOP, Republicans have been working to shield pesticide makers from liability for failing to warn consumers that their products would cause cancer. Monsanto, which faces 100,000 lawsuits related to its Roundup weedkiller, went crying to the GOP for protection, and as always, Republicans responded. Though Democrats were able to remove the GOP’s pesticide liability waiver from a congressional appropriations bill in January, the Trump administration has taken up the cause and is asking the Supreme Court to step in and shield these companies from accountability for the decades they spent poisoning Americans.

This dynamic is also apparent in the GOP’s slavish devotion to AI billionaires. The class divide on this topic is sharp—regular Americans are increasingly concerned about the potentially devastating impact of AI on their jobs and their kids’ economic prospects, and they sure as hell don’t want parasitic AI data centers raising their electricity prices and fouling their water. But the Epstein class loves this plutocracy-enriching technology, so the GOP jumped into action. Your community wants to hold AI billionaires accountable for the harmful effects—mass unemployment, suicide, cognitive decline, climate breakdown—of their products? Not while the party of elite impunity is in charge. Twice last year, Republicans in Congress tried to pass a law preventing state and local regulation of AI. Democrats were able to defeat both efforts, but in December Trump signed an executive order to bypass Congress by, among other measures, directing his government to mount legal challenges to state AI laws and withhold federal funds from jurisdictions that are regulating AI.

Then there’s climate change. Millions of voters are already feeling the pain of skyrocketing home insurance rates driven by increased climate risks, and millions more are confronted each year with the staggering costs of climate disaster recovery, without any help from the corporations that created and profited from this crisis. So communities across the country have been pursuing state legislation and litigation to make fossil fuel companies pay for the damages they caused—the homes swallowed by the sea, businesses wiped off the map by inland flooding, communities destroyed by wildfires, lethal heat waves, horrific droughts, and other catastrophes. In response, Big Oil has been begging for a get-out-of-jail-free card, with the American Petroleum Institute explicitly naming Big Oil immunity one of its top priorities in 2026. Naturally, Republicans have answered the call, with the administration filing multiple legally unhinged lawsuits to try to stop states from pursuing accountability litigation, and Congressional Republicans recently announcing that they are crafting legislation to block communities from having their day in court.

On issue after issue, the GOP has gone to the mat to shield the most powerful and wealthy individuals and entities from having to face consequences for their misdeeds. Whether they’re protecting pedophiles, immunizing Big Ag, defending Big Tech, or shielding Big Oil, Republicans have demonstrated that theirs is the party of elite impunity. Surely Democrats should be making this a central part of their messaging this year.

Affordability—the Democratic establishment’s main talking point in 2026—is important: voters are sick and tired of seeing the cost of living continue to rise under Republican rule. But they’re also sick and tired of seeing America’s two-tiered legal system treat the most disgusting and avaricious people in the world like they’re above the law. Democrats need to walk and chew gum at the same time here.

Because I don’t think I’m the only one who’s been having trouble concentrating lately. There’s a rage building in this country against those who continue insisting on one set of rules for you and me and another for the rich and powerful. Americans are ready to tear down that system of elite impunity. Let’s make sure they vote out its party, too.

---

This piece appeared in The New Republic. Check them out!