Jeffrey Epstein is back in the news at last. Epstein is a Florida-based hedge-fund manager who, having raked in billions, used his money and his organizational skills to set up an international pedophile network, shipping young girls by private plane to interested parties across the planet. The physically repulsive Epstein (he looks like a Satanic Fred Gwynne) got away with this for years thanks to his money and his social and political connections.

Implicated in his crimes is no less than Prince Andrew, the ne’er-do-well hustler scion of the British Royal house. Also involved is another member of the transatlantic social elite, Ghislaine Maxwell, Epstein’s “c ompanion” and daughter of press magnate Robert Maxwell, who allegedly acted as a procuress, selecting and grooming young girls for use by the network. It can be presumed that a large number of other notables were also involved.

Justice finally caught up with Epstein -- in a way -- when he was busted by the FBI in 2008. Evidence was irrefutable, but on finding Epstein guilty, an understanding judge worked out an 18-month sentence with attorney Alan Dershowitz -- Epstein served 13 -- and then with only nights spent in jail. He was free to roam during the day. (Dershowitz is now accused of sharing Epstein’s sexual activities. This is hard to evaluate -- it’s difficult to believe the canny Dershowitz would be so foolish. Another one of Epstein’s defenders was Kenneth Starr, once a moral arbiter but who has now clearly lost his bearings.)

But the FBI is not that easily shaken off. The case has been reopened thanks to the testimony of Virginia Roberts, one of Epstein’s victims, who has finally worked up the courage to defy one of the planet’s wealthiest men. Epstein is now facing a real sentence in a real prison, and we can be sure that at least some of those shadowy figures among his clientele will be forced into the daylight.

Coincidentally appearing in the news at the same time was Joe Morrisey, Democratic candidate from Virginia, who succeeded in gaining re-election while serving a six-month sentence in the state hoosegow. His crime, similar to Epstein’s, was sex with an underage female, in this case a 17-year-old working in his office. (Looking at Morrisey, Ted Kennedy, Elizabeth Warren, John Murtha, and the like makes you wonder exactly what a Democratic politician has to do to offend his electorate. Act as a pimp? Perform experiments on small children? The guard tower at Auschwitz? Maybe Kermit Gosnell should run for office.)

Only last week Morrisey was accused of four more felonies stemming from the earlier accusation. It seems that Morrisey fabricated a document intended to vindicate him, while suborning the victim's mother to help authenticate it. (She was also indicted.) Like Epstein, Morrisey is now facing real time in the big boy's prison.

And then we have Jerry Sandusky, whom we are supposed to forget was good old Joe Paterno’s right-hand man as defensive coach for the Penn State Nittany Lions. Sandusky was, of course, revealed as a long-term pedo with a taste for young boys and was sentenced to 30 years. The Lions were deprived by the NCAA of over a hundred victories as punishment, and Paterno, who among many others had played see-no-evil, died of shame.

But a decision by a seriously misguided Pennsylvania judge in a virtually unrelated lawsuit brought by state politicians has led to the NCAA being forced to restore the team’s victories, removing much of the force of the punishment for the team, its staff, and the university for acquiescing to Sandusky’s crimes. At the same time, substantial allegations that Sandusky was “loaning out” children under the care of his “charity,” The Second Mile, to pedos of his acquaintance have gone completely uninvestigated.

These three stories breaking within a week’s span may simply be coincidence -- or maybe not. A glance at events of the last few years suggests that pedophilia may be emerging as the characteristic sexual perversion of the American elite.

The idea that a national social class can have any such thing may appear odd at first-glance, but it’s far from unprecedented. In imperial Rome, homosexual and heterosexual rape, carried out as an expression of male potestas (dominance) was a commonplace. It was probably best portrayed in Spartacus, in the gut-wrenching scene where Crassus (Laurence Olivier) sets out to seduce Antoninus (Tony Curtis) “Some people like snails, some people like oysters…” The effort deteriorates into a rant about the power of Rome (“You must love her…”)

Such behavior prevailed in some areas of Italy until the Renaissance -- in 1460, Sigismundo Pandolfo Malatesta, the “Wolf of Rimini,” publicly raped a papal envoy to show his contempt for the Vatican.

Closer in time we discover British upper-class homosexuality, fed by the bizarre “public” school system, in which young boys in the throes of sexual awakening were put under the complete control of slightly older youths, who proceeded to select favorites and make them their “fags.” A system better designed to encourage perverse behavior is impossible to imagine. Some descriptions of life in the public schools sound like a night in the palace of Nero.

Norman Podhoretz has suggested that the resulting conflicted, guilt-ridden British upper class goes a long way to explain the irrationality of many UK policy decisions over the past century. One thing beyond question is the large role this education-bred homosexuality played in the Cambridge spy ring, whose members were all exposed to public-school homosexuality.

Turning back to American upper-crust pedophilia, along with Epstein, Morissey, and Sandusky we can add Woody Allen -- whatever the facts of the incident involving his adopted daughter, pedophilia plays a large role in his mental life, as was demonstrated by AT writer Kim Zigfeld. Allen is, needless to say, the favorite director of America’s elite, worshipped as our very own Ingmar Bergman by New Yorker readers from coast to coast.

(Nor is Allen the only Hollywood example. Victor Salva, a well-known horror director, was arrested several times for pedophilia, getting assignments despite the fact. One of his chief supporters was Mary Steenburgen, the most charming actress of her generation.)

Last summer, Obama bundler and gay activist Terry Bean and his “partner” were arrested for sexually abusing a 15-year-old boy in Eugene, Oregon. Not a single major paper in the U.S. carried the story.

Finally, we have the testimony of relatives that Gore Vidal, the widely admired novelist and the 20th century’s crown prince of obnoxiousness, was a practicing pedophile. This assertion is backed up by his own statements. (“All men,” Vidal once airily declared. “Are attracted to young boys.”)

Vidal, cousin to both Al Gore and Jackie Kennedy, is as pure an expression of the American elite as you will ever encounter

All this is not to overlook the deluge of high-school teachers -- almost exclusively female -- who have been preying on teenagers, both male and female, in recent years. This has gone nearly unmentioned by media, apart from individual reports (It’s only newsworthy when it involves Catholic priests). The shining exception is Instapundit’s Glenn Reynolds, who chronicles these stories with stunning frequency under the headline, “Teach women not to rape.” But there have been so many of these cases -- they very likely number in the hundreds -- each involving highly educated, well vetted, and impeccably middle class women in their 20s and 30s, as to make it undeniable that something has gone drastically wrong with this country’s educational system.

And then there’s Lena Dunham.

What are we to think of this? Is the U.S. on the brink of terminal, irrecoverable decadence? Have we, at long last, become Rome? Public acceptance of sexual deviance begins with the upper classes -- the elite -- and then trickles down. In large part, the middle class has accepted these developments in recent years. Many things once taboo -- openly sold porn, public prostitution, homosexuality -- have been integrated into social life.

How much chance is there that pedophilia will follow?

We’re going to find out. Pedophilia is already deeply embedded in political life. Epstein was a mammoth supporter of Democrats, up to and including Barack Obama. (He also apparently attempted to inveigle Bill Clinton into joining his frolics. How this could have failed is anybody’s guess.) Terry Bean’s connections speak for themselves. And don’t forget Anne Covey, the Pennsylvania judge willing to downgrade criminal pedophilia on legal technicalities. Pedophilia is the black secret of current politics.

Apart from that, the LGBT movement is beginning to focus its efforts on legitimizing pedophilia -- always the Grail of the gay rights movement. Many of the movement’s saints -- Harvey Milk, Harry Hays -- shared this proclivity along with Terry Bean. The gay interpretation here is that it’s in the best interests of young homosexuals to be “guided” by older gays rather than their parents, who know nothing of the gay lifestyle. Using the same logic, it would be “best” for young prostitutes, junkies, and schizophrenics to seek such older “guidance” as well.

There’s no question that sexual depravity is a sign of serious social decline. Pedophilia may well be the moral acid test for American society. Twenty years ago, the notion of gay marriage was ludicrous. Today, it’s being forced on the country by rogue judges, and will shortly face a moment of truth before the Supreme Court. My guess is that it’s simply a bridge too far and the public as a whole will revolt. We may well see a long overdue retrenchment in public morality. People are not willingly going to give up their kids to the “guidance” of pedophiles.

Which leaves us with the elites. It is no surprise that these people would debase themselves in this way. Elites almost always do, acting as they do beyond any plausible form of social checks and balances. The American upper crust long ago sold out politically to the vagaries of the left, financially to corrupt hustlers, and even philosophically to postmodernism. They long ago abandoned the ancient WASP doctrine of public service and have sought only to please themselves. The fact that the U.S. retains a strong democratic system is the only thing that has saved us from an aristocratic stranglehold. The elite’s weakness for children may well turn out to be an opportunity to curtail the power and influence of this degenerate caste. Breaking Jeffrey Epstein, cleaning out Hollywood, and getting to the bottom of the Sandusky scandal would be a start.