NO ELITE ACCOUNTABILITY = AMERICAN EXCEPTIONALISM

Here are some of today's headlines:

* Former Prince Andrew Arrested in Britain Over Epstein Ties

* Epstein files hand French prosecutors trove of new leads

* South Korea’s former president Yoon Suk Yeol jailed for life for leading insurrection

* Epstein’s Files of ‘Shame’ Blast Through Europe and Beyond, Scorching Politicians, Royals and Other Elites

From that last story:

... former British Ambassador to Washington Peter Mandelson ... was fired last year after it came to light that he maintained a friendly relationship with Epstein for years after the financier’s 2008 prison term for sexual offenses involving a minor. Now, police are investigating whether he passed on sensitive government financial information – including some documents meant for the prime minister only – to Epstein during the financial crisis, while he was the UK’s Secretary of State for Business. If charged and found guilty, Mandelson could face a life sentence....

Across the English Channel, French officials have launched a tax fraud and money laundering investigation into Jack Lang, a former French culture minister, and his daughter, Caroline.

There are legal investigations in quite a few other countries. But in America? No one in Washington is stepping down. No one in politics is in legal jeopardy. Prominent figures in business, law, and academia have left positions in disgrace, but no one appears to be under criminal investigation.

(And, of course, our president was never held accountable for his attempt to subvert democracy in 2021, unlike the former presidents of South Korea and Brazil.)

I think it's only a matter of time before American pundits begin arguing that America's utter lack of legal accountability for elites is a good thing, actually.

They'll say that instead of succumbing to moral panics, "wokeness," and guilt by association, American law enforcement is right not to define dynamic, capable, accomplished people by their worst moments. We should be pleased! Societies with a culture of shame are weaker! We don't want to be like (insert retching sounds) Europe, do we? Stodgy, hidebound, politically correct, past-its-prime Europe? Who wants that?

Maybe we'll hear this from the Atlantic writer who told us that the recently releases Epstein files "bolster the case that although terrible crimes were committed, there never was a larger conspiracy to begin with," or maybe we'll hear it from the folks, mostly on the right, who keep calling the Epstein matter a "moral panic." Right-wingers already believe that Donald Trump shouldn't have been held accountable for the attempted coup he inspired. Why wouldn't they say the failure to launch investigations of bigwigs in the Epstein files is a good thing, too?