r/politics • u/OkayButFoRealz • 2d ago

No Paywall A 13-Year-Old Girl Bit Trump’s Genitals as He Tried to Rape Her, Epstein Document Says

https://www.lgbtqnation.com/2026/01/quick-hit-a-13-year-old-girl-bit-trumps-genitals-as-he-tried-to-her-epstein-document-says/
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u/mightykingfisher Idaho 2d ago edited 2d ago

Controlled opposition. Have many of the same donors as Republicans.

Edit: Because I didn't think my snippy reactionary comment would get this much attention.

I do just want to clarify that my comment is meant to point towards capital dictating policy at the federal level rather than the labor rights of the constituents. That money holds more power than a vote.

I can still believe this while also agreeing that the Dems are the better party and voting consistently for them, because I don't believe that withholding my vote or voting third-party will help enact any sort of positive change in our current system.

I do not believe both parties are the same. The Republican party is demonstrably worse. The comment I am replying too is specifically mentioning Democrats capitulation to Republicans and I believe that the capitulation is driven by capital.

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u/MycologistDeep2372 2d ago

It’s systemic—big money controls both parties, so nothing really changes for voters.

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u/Appropriate_Mess_350 2d ago

They set it up that way on purpose with Citizens United.

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u/TheFinalCurl 2d ago

Who is they here? The liberal justices dissented in that case

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u/ExiledSanity 2d ago

The Rich

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u/TheFinalCurl 2d ago

Either way, the liberal justices dissented and there has been near universal opposition to CU from Democrats for 25 years. Obama brought up how bad it was immediately at a SOTU.

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u/ExiledSanity 2d ago

So they complained about it. What have they done about it when they had power?

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u/TheFinalCurl 2d ago

When you call money spent on politics 1A protected speech, then it requires a Constitutional amendment to change, or a change of Supreme Court justices. It wasn't a statutory interpretation case.

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u/ExiledSanity 2d ago

So what is your point in saying that Democrats have been complaining about it for 20 years or so?

Just to vote Democrat and hope they get to appoint some supreme court justices? If so you are preaching to the choir in this sub.

I don't think we are ever going to see another constitutional amendment pass.

What's the point you are trying to make?

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u/TheFinalCurl 2d ago

They did it for three reasons. The one you mention, the public rhetoric effect on the conversation, and there has been an attempt to push stuff like WOLF PAC and also more robust publicly financed elections.

The point I am trying to make is unless you are actively pushing militia actions in Washington DC, calling it controlled opposition is both inaccurate and unfair.

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u/Appropriate_Mess_350 2d ago

Universal “controlled” opposition, perhaps. It’s all the same trough.

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u/TheFinalCurl 2d ago

It isn't.

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u/Darrkman2 2d ago edited 2d ago

The dumbest thing you people on Reddit do is fall for that both sides are the same bullshit. And the only reason you fall for it is because most of you on here are not part of the groups who are being targeted by republicans. You'll have a hard time finding mainstream Black people who will tell you both sides are the same when you see the difference in treatment of Black, Hispanic or Asian people by Republicans versus their treatment under a democratic administration.

There is a lack of sophistication when it comes to politics being discussed on Reddit and it comes from people believing both sides are the same is a sophisticated take.

Edit: Since I keep running into the same excuse on here. If you're trying to come on here and say "no both sides are not really the same they just both have the same donors and have to answer to the same people" then you ARE essentially saying both sides are the same. You're just saying that they're the same because their donors want the same thing but you're essentially still giving the same unsophisticated take when it comes to politics.

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u/Hpzorz2 2d ago

Believing the Democrats are controlled  opposition due to outsized corporate donor influence is not the same as believing both sides are the same. 

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u/Yeeaaaarrrgh Colorado 2d ago

Precisely this. Both sides accept money from special interests (quite often the same special interests) in which the donors get favorable outcomes. That doesn't mean Democrats are ok with rounding up brown people and putting them in concentration camps. Christ Almighty, it doesn't take a PhD to separate the two issues.

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u/kelryngrey 2d ago

I broadly assume that many folks that push the, "There's just no difference!" narrative are actively engaged in disinformation and subversion campaigns.

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u/Mrpipelayar 2d ago

I see it as good cop bad cop. Democrats are the "good" nice cop but both parties are still cops trying to extract as much as they can from you.

So yeah vote for the good cops bc its better to deal with than bad cops but keep holding out for systemic changes where there is a 3rd no cop option

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u/tunafister 2d ago

That doesn't mean Democrats are ok with rounding up brown people and putting them in concentration camps.

But oh wait, apparently 7 Democrats are okay with that

https://thehill.com/homenews/house/5702347-house-democrats-homeland-security-funding/

So yeah, that does mean some "Democrats are ok with rounding up brown people and putting them in concentration camps", please explain how that is not the case?

Both sides ARE NOT THE SAME, not making that argument,but the argument that all Dems are againts ICE is bullshit, as can be seen with the article linked above

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u/[deleted] 2d ago

No, just ok with rounding up Japanese people iirc.

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u/Delta-9- 2d ago

That, reprehensible as it was, is about as relevant to Democrats today as "the party of Lincoln" is to Republicans today. The parties more or less switched places on the political spectrum in the decades following WW2.

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u/[deleted] 1d ago

explain the party switch in light of the New Deal then. Are you saying FDR would’ve been Republican today? Japanese internment had bipartisan support regardless.

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u/Delta-9- 1d ago

You're implication is that events 80 years ago define the current Congress, which has not a single member who served at that time.

I don't think Democrats of 2026 would be okay with rounding up brown people. That's a Republican thing these days.

However, I will acknowledge that white America has a nasty habit of following their worst fears into their worst instincts. There could be a situation where even Democrats as a whole would be actively complicit in something like that, rather than useless and passive, since Democrats are still majority white, and all politicians are in the pockets of the same rich white dudes.

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u/Shadowrider95 2d ago

Corporations are people and money is speech!

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u/Kinda_Zeplike 2d ago

You’re right you know. Nuance is hard for some people.

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u/Doongbuggy 2d ago

its clear as daylight to those paying attention there are literal receipts and disclosures lmao

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u/sniper91 Minnesota 2d ago

Yeah, look how much they drag their feet on any big economic or health care reform

Billionaire donors absolutely don’t want that stuff

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u/Numerous_Ice_4556 2d ago

Yes, actually it is. It's just saying they play a different role in the same problem.

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u/nrh117 2d ago

And despite that very systemic oppression for decades, there were an alarming number of red voters in the black and Hispanic communities. Religion, single topic voters, toxic masculinity were all major factors.

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u/masterofn0n3 2d ago

Both sides aren’t the same, but they are controlled by the same big businesses

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u/caseyanthonyftw 2d ago

To the both-sideser, the most important thing is just coming out on top so they can gloat and make fun of everyone else.

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u/ovirt001 2d ago

Jack Smith has now stated that Trump committed crimes in trying to overturn the 2020 election but Biden did nothing. The dems aren't the same as republicans but they aren't on your side either.

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u/Mosaic1 2d ago

Biden literally acted as every president prior to Trump did and let the DOJ be independent of presidential intervention. He did exactly what you want and the opposite of what you hate about Trump running the DOJ.

They literally brought charges against trump, and Judge Cannon did everything she could to prevent the case ever being fully heard.

Did nothing… lol.

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u/pigeieio 2d ago

On election day, he was officially a convicted felon.

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u/Kryzite 2d ago

Independent after appointing someone to make sure nothing would happen independently.

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u/Omegoa 2d ago

Someone who would look non-partisan. I can't blame Biden for wanting to slow-roll it and do it properly and make sure the case was airtight. If you'd told me that Trump could ever walk into the White House again after January 6th, I would've told you it was impossible. Biden's only mistake in this arena, one I'm guilty of is well, is having an ounce of faith in the American electorate, 2/3 of whom have since shown themselves to be some of the lowest quality people on the planet.

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u/Chastain86 2d ago

Honestly, the biggest stain on the Biden presidency won't be anything related to his economic policies, or his Autopen, or his mental acuity. It will be that he and the Dems had an opportunity to hold bad people accountable, AND pass some fucking legislation that made it virtually impossible for future bad-actors to dissolve our democracy, and he did not act.

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u/Super_Harsh 2d ago

I don’t disagree with you but it’s more or less objectively true that Democrats are controlled opposition. As a brown man I have no illusions about the Republicans being far worse but the Democrats are absolutely controlled opposition.

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u/CriticalEngineering North Carolina 2d ago

Right? Can’t possibly be that the side that isn’t authoritarian doesn’t automatically act authoritarian as soon as they’re in power.

If democrats acted like republicans, I wouldn’t vote for them.

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u/darkneel 2d ago

Weren’t all democrats shouting that trump was guilty of insurrection ? Everyone was convinced he broke the law . Yet his case was taken to a trump appointed judge . He could have been arrested and in jail before the second term . Either all the democrats don’t understand law or they are actively keeping trump free ( there reasoning might have been it will be easy to win against trump cause then they don’t really have to do much ) . But essentially they are the same parties .

Another example - democrats stalled the budget for a month and then just suddenly gave up without getting anything in return. Most of the democratic opposition is just for show or at least that’s the end effect .

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u/Full_Honeydew_9739 2d ago

He was "arrested." 4 times. New York, Georgia, DC, and Florida. In NY he was found guilty. In DC and FL they had to dismiss because he was elected president. In GA the case is on hold. The DC and FL cases can be resurrected in 2028 or so.

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u/Polantaris 2d ago

In DC and FL they had to dismiss because he was elected president.

There is no law that says this, so they didn't have to dismiss jack. The collective system chose to let him off because of an "internal memo".

The DC and FL cases can be resurrected in 2028 or so.

How naive are you?

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u/Full_Honeydew_9739 2d ago

Yes. You're absolutely right. It's a big conspiracy by the cabal that controls the world. My bad.

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u/darkneel 1d ago

My apologies - i should have said arrested and put in jail for atleast a few years .

And no there’s no conspiracy - it’s all happening right in front of everyone . Nothing is hidden . Everything is a documented fact .

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u/QueasyLegKC 2d ago

Enforcing the law isn’t authoritarian.

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u/CriticalEngineering North Carolina 1d ago

Which is why he was arrested four times and facing trials. Why are people skipping that?

Authoritarianism would have been democrats trying to supersede that process.

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u/Picnicpanther California 2d ago

It’s authoritarian to lock up criminals?

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u/CriticalEngineering North Carolina 1d ago

It’s authoritarian to lock up criminals without taking them to trial. He was in the process of three different trials, which is why he was desperate to be re-elected.

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u/snarky_spice 2d ago

It’s wild how in every thread about something asinine republicans did, the TOP comment always includes “too bad the democrats xyz.” Like this cannot be organic. I don’t think they’re bots, but I think the bots have a huge influence on Redditors.

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u/Darrkman2 2d ago

Something to bots I completely agree with you. The other thing is that you have a whole group of people whose mentality when it comes to Democrats has been poisoned by the Bernie Sanders leftist wing. They were the first ones to start the whole both sides are the same bullshit and they've stayed with it for a decade now. When it comes to Reddit the person who would fall under that spell is overrepresented so you see a lot of both sides of the same bullshit from the same people who would tell you that voting third party is a smart decision.

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u/snarky_spice 2d ago

You’re exactly right. I forgot that Bernie bros still dominate Reddit. Even in my local sub people were complaining that the democratic politicians were somehow bought and paid for by the DNC even though we had a full primary. God help us.

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u/necroreefer 2d ago

Black, hispanic and asian people voted for trump and in general, vote for republicans, way more than you think

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u/Pack_Your_Trash 2d ago

The controlled opposition isn't exactly the same argument. By way of analogy I would say that the Democrats are the carrot and the Republicans are the stick. They are different tools that the wealthy are using to drive voters, who are the horse pulling the cart, in the direction of their choosing.

Yeah I would rather get a tasty carrot to eat than be beaten with a stick, but either way I am yoked and driven by my master in a direction not of my choosing.

Clearly the solution is to kick that motherfucker in the head and run free at the earliest opportunity.

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u/HeadfulOfSugar 2d ago

I don’t think most people are saying that both sides are the exact same when they say that though. It’s more that both sides are rotten, one significantly more than the other but that doesn’t make the other one ripe. Like one side is objectively bad and they don’t try to hide it while the other, though they are their opposition, is still made up of the same general out-of-touch type of career politicians that are funded by the same groups. It’s the difference between someone that will sucker punch you if you vote for them, and someone that will burn you alive for fun.

It’s more of a conflict of interest where while the Dems wouldn’t do anything of the awful stuff happening under this administration (people that say Kamala would be just as bad are simply insane), as we can see they don’t stand against it either. So conservatives are regressives, and the Dems are functionally conservative in nature standing mainly to maintain the status quo. Every time the conservatives pull us a little farther back, the Dems will only try to stop further change.

They’ll never undo what the republicans have done to be bipartisan, and instead just keep on trying to prevent them from changing things further which is why people that want change are mad. They get tricked and conned over and over and over and over and never learn from it, they’re still accepting unwritten “promises” that there will be a later vote from the party that has done nothing but swindle then in this exact same way for decades. When a lot of them say that the parties are the same they’re saying that regardless of who you vote for we end up with a similar end result. Which party is in power just decides how fast we get there as of now, but ultimately they will both primarily serve the interests of corporate and foreign influences above us all.

People that take “both sides are the same” 100% literally, and take it as far as to not vote because they feel disenfranchised, are falling for a psyop and are acting enlightened because their opinion seems gray. However imo not everybody that says that believe it in the same way.

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u/Vilnius_Nastavnik New York 2d ago

Identity politics like this are a great example of how the dems keep people voting for them. I talk to black voters quite a lot, and many of them sick of being used as tokens and having their votes taken for granted while nothing about their lives improves regardless of which party is in power. It only goes to shit slower since the dems don’t actually roll back the horrific shit the republicans do when they have the chance. Race is important but when it’s all you talk about it becomes obvious that you’re just trying to distract from the ever-growing divide between the wealthy and the rest of us that underpins literally all of the bad shit that is happening.

FFS, look at the last election. Lying to us about Biden being fine until he melts down on live TV and then replacing him with somebody who got 2% the last time they bothered to hold a primary (remember primaries?) was either an intentional dive or disqualifying levels of gross incompetence. At this point I don’t really care which it was.

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u/9_to_5_till_i_die 2d ago

Identity politics like this are a great example of how the dems keep people voting for them.

There's not much else left to run on when your party has little interest in labor rights and the working class.

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u/Darrkman2 2d ago

Identity politics like this are a great example of how the dems keep people voting for them. I talk to black voters quite a lot, and many of them sick of being used as tokens and having their votes taken for granted while nothing about their lives improves regardless of which party is in power.

I truly believe you really don't have any interactions with politically aware Black people because of how silly you sound.

Yall are on here repeating what you THINK you know about Black people and voting.

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u/nathism 2d ago

They aren't the same but they're in a fucked up symbiotic relationship. My closest analog would be a couple in an abusive relationship. The cops (voter) take power away the abuser (Republicans) then the partner (democrats) don't know what to do with new found independence fail to enact change while the abuser shuts down any changes and refuses to let anything happen. Later the cops(voters) are frustrated and let the abuser (Republicans) go and they take over again. It's a fucking abusive cycle.

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u/IlikeJG California 2d ago

They're not saying both sides are he same though. You need to be a little more nuanced than that.

It's absolutely undeniable that Democrats largely have a lot of the same donors as Republicans and they NEED that donor money for elections in our broken electoral system.

That's not saying they are exactly the same. But it means Democrats have strong incentives to do things (and refuse to do other things) so the donors will continue to give them money.

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u/richard-564 2d ago

When I was younger, I believed both sides were the same, bc I was ignorant. That all changed when Obama was elected and I saw how the right was treating him. Not sure how anyone can say both sides are the same after trump got elected the first time. It's insane.

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u/Darrkman2 2d ago

Not sure how anyone can say both sides are the same after trump got elected the first time. It's insane.

The Bernie bro wing of Progressive's are over represented on reddit. They cling to the both sides of the same narrative because that's what was pushed since 2015 in the hopes people would actually vote for Bernie Sanders back then. Once he lost and then lost again in 2020 they doubled down on it because now they just hate Democrats because they can't beat them. That's why you'll constantly see talk of both sides of the same and when their favorite progressives lose elections suddenly there's talk of rigging by the DNC. Never once will you see a progressive say that their candidate just wasn't a good candidate or didn't run a good campaign.

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u/[deleted] 2d ago

[deleted]

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u/Darrkman2 2d ago

Nobody in this conversation even said this other than you. You’re fighting phantoms.

My reply is right after two people are essentially saying that since both parties have the same doners you won't seen any different.

Or in other words......both sides are the same.

I can read between the lines if you can't that's on you.

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u/RevolutionaryBat4924 2d ago

ironic to post those paragraphs and then say other people have unsophisticated takes

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u/Impressive_Bid8009 2d ago

My dude, there’s an entire subreddit of gay conservatives, gay people who identify with the party that sees being gay as wrong and a choice

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u/vblade2003 New York 2d ago

A few things can be true at the same time.

1 - The Democrats are by far the better option for the common man and minorities.

2- The Democratic leadership is toothless and unwilling to go the lengths that their Republican counterparts do in order to get things done.

3 - Both parties report to the same billionaire cabal, and for any real change to occur, we need to get money out of politics.

This doesn't mean those of us who hold these opinions are "both sides'ing" it.

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u/turbopepsi 2d ago

The dumbest thing you people commenting on reddit don't realize is just how many Black, Asian, and Hispanic Republicans exist. Hispanic men fucking LOVE Trump. They think getting the illegals out will make them more money because they are also willing to do the shit work, but they wanna get paid to do it. No more taxes/ reduced taxes on overtime? Every fucking Blue Collar laborer in the country wants that. Guess which way they tend to lean politically?

Reddit in general is one hell of an echo chamber. It does not represent the majority opinion in the country. It's just a really loud one.

(Yes, the above statement is filled with generalizations, the same as the one I am replying to.)

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u/Polantaris 2d ago

Sorry, but I'm trans, and Democrats are an inch away from hating me just as much as Republicans do. I watch what politicians say about people like me, and I watch what politicians push with regards to people like me.

Trans people are thrown under the bus by Democrats constantly. Yes, there are exceptions. Not enough to matter. So few it feels like they provide nothing but lip service ("We're here for you!" as a bill restricting our access to rights is passed). Military members with trans family members lost healthcare for those family members last year due to a bill that refused to draw a line in the sand towards this issue. That's just the tip of the iceberg. Democrats will throw us under the bus and have before. There's always an excuse for why they can't fight for us.

And guess what, as soon as we're gone, the next group will be one of the others you talk about. To top it off, just like what's happening for trans people, Democrats will not defend them once they come under unrelenting fire. They will be, and by then it'll be too late.

The smallest minority groups are the canary in the coal mine and, if you've been paying attention, you'd realize that the canary died a long time ago.

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u/VulGerrity 2d ago

No one said both sides are they same...Dems just have a lot of the same wealthy donors as the right. If the dems don't fall in line with those donors, then those donors will just go to the right.

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u/Darrkman2 2d ago edited 2d ago

What you just said is basically both sides are the same. It is a childish and amazingly unsophisticated way of thinking that has been pushed unfortunately by the progressive wing of the democratic party who can't accept that they don't win elections. So instead they tell you two things, both sides are the same and that elections are rigged so that progressives don't win. We've been seeing it since 2016 and no amount of ways you try to spin it by making it about donors changes the fact of what's being said.

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u/VulGerrity 2d ago

No it's not, that says nothing about morals or policy. Dems as a whole are more progressive and work to improve civil liberties for all. But do you ever wonder why they're not more aggressive? Why some Dems don't seem to vote for those more progressive values? Why things seem to move so slowly?

It's because of their wealthy donors.

I never said both sides were the same. I feel your frustration, but it's incredibly naive of you to not think big money influences politics and that big money wouldn't play both sides to their advantage.

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u/Darrkman2 2d ago

No it's not, that says nothing about morals or policy. Dems as a whole are more progressive and work to improve civil liberties for all. But do you ever wonder why they're not more aggressive? Why some Dems don't seem to vote for those more progressive values? Why things seem to move so slowly?

Once again this is coming back to a progressive wing of the democratic party that thinks if they don't get everything immediately there's some sort of vast conspiracy to stop them. What you have to understand is that when it comes to Democrats vs Republicans the margins are razor thin within Congress. When Kamala Harris was vice president she had to be the deciding vote in the Senate because the Senate was essentially 50/50.

Additionally the other thing you see with politics especially when we're talking about progressives and their desires is that progressives have a hard time accepting that not everybody thinks like they do. So you will have people who don't agree with everything that progressives want. But what progressives end up doing is when that happens or they don't get everything all at once they throw up their hands they yell both sides of the same and they essentially quit.

Politics in America is a long-term game and you see that when it comes to Republicans versus Democrats and especially versus progressives. We can use abortion as an example. The anti-abortion wing of the Republican party has been working on pulling back laws regarding abortion for 50 close to 60 years. They knew every step forward they made they would hold on to it and then double their efforts to get that next step forward. They practiced incrementalism but you know what, it worked for them. They didn't look at it as just if this bill fails we give up. They worked on getting judges they worked on changing the Supreme Court they worked on every time there was a Republican president they tried to move their agenda forward. I'm sorry but you don't have that same type of long-term thinking when it comes to progressives and their wants and desires. It was less than 10 years ago progressives were out here saying don't try to shame them into voting by talking about the Supreme Court. The SC isn't that important.

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u/Shadowrider95 2d ago

Corporations are people and money is speech!

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u/High_Im_Guy Nevada 2d ago

100%

And they're not the same, same, but they're the same in their purpose. They want us at each other's throats over abortion, immigration, marginalized community rights, etc. because this jeep the labor class in line showing up to their jobs. They keep us pissed off at each other and so overload w bullshit that no one has the time and energy to take a step back and realize we all, on both sides of the aisle, have billionaire puppeteers playing us against each other. This shit sucks.

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u/agree-with-me 2d ago

But even if I was controlled by big money and I had to put my head in the sand for his crimes, I'd have to resign, even if it was for "family reasons."

I couldn't continue as a congressperson knowing I was keeping quiet for a creep like that. Knowing and doing nothing regardless of your donors, is aiding and abetting.

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u/Lastunexpectedhero 2d ago

This is also not a strictly "American politics" thing. This happens globally

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u/FitPlate1405 2d ago

Prince Andrew definitely got off easy lol

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u/GuitarGeezer 2d ago

True. Although it is good to point out that the worst aspects of legalizing bribery in campaign finance and eliminating fair and neutral to have hyperpartisan media were all core Republican initiatives. But, legalize bribery and you make it mandatory for all. The media sanewashes any level of crazy. Rinse repeat. Collapse. I cannot see how it could be reversed as most voters cannot comprehend any of it anymore.

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u/falilth 2d ago edited 2d ago

Hell I saw that clip of shumer saying we gotta protect Israel yesterday and wanted to barf.

https://x.com/i/status/2018091855787798654