The Coming “Arrangement.”

It is one week after election day. The obvious reality to anyone not in the cult is that the race is over and the results show Donald John Trump was defeated. But Trump hasn’t conceded and now he is trying to snag a win with a Hail Mary. He thinks he can get enough traction about fraud to convince legislatures in Republican controlled states to overturn the vote and send their own electors in place. It might not even work, he’d need a lot of help, and there are players missing. I’ve mentioned this before but would be conspirators to crime often get cold feet. In other words, Trump can’t pull it off because people don’t think it will work and aren’t dying on this fence. But he sure can try and he can sure do a lot of vindictive damage, which I will add seems just like him to do.

Trump is leaving office likely facing federal and state charges of one sort or another. Perhaps many. He’s trying to avoid jail, and more importantly a trial. A trial eats up money and time he would use for his next deal. What comes after this for Trump? Nothing good unless he and other parties can come to an arrangement.

What does he want? Easy, he and his family face no charges at any level. Not for anything. Taxes, self-dealing, fraud, everything is off the table. He could want other things, including bankruptcy protection, but he needs immunity.

What does Trump have to offer? Peace, I suppose is the best way to describe it. He has a virtual army of men with rifles that would commit mayhem on his word. Many of these men have organized themselves into gangs which they self-style as militia. Trump might well be able to plunge the country into civil war. His back is against the wall and he fights like a rat. Right now he is making a public pitch that the election is invalid because he feels he couldn’t possibly lose. He cries cheat and his core base eat it up. And for all the love of country those people profess, many of Trump’s base hold allegiance to him first. And they cannot see the difference. They have literally embossed Trump’s name and likeness across the face the United States Flag and stuck it at the ends of their driveways. And even if some of them get cold feet, there are so many others that are waiting to start.

The short of it is that he can unleash a great terror on opponents both political and societal.

He could offer to take that away. Though a civil war here would more resemble the one in Spain than the one we had in America, it would still be a bloody mess. An ideological war between left and right. (Mostly.)

Meanwhile in the Senate.

What about the Senate? What’s going on there? The Senate race North Carolina has been conceded. The Democrat conceded to the Republican as a gesture of cooperation. But this is larger than that. It guarantees a Republican Senate for the next two years. With leadership knowing that they have control and therefor can strictly limit legislation, there is less incentive to go all in with Trump and join his executive coup attempt.

I’ll go one step further. I think it is possible that this is part of a deal that is mostly complete in detail. The nuts and bolts are that we get free of Trump and the fascist future he represents, and avoid open rebellion; but we lose the ability to get a lot of progressive work done, and we can’t get national revenge on Trump.

But should we make that deal?

“We’d be sending a message to all future would be dictators that they won’t be punished for trying.” I’ve heard that too. I’ve probably even said it. But the reality is that anyone with the power to try doing it isn’t concerned about punishment if he fails.

The ugly side is we might face a civil war. Regardless of what happens to Trump we may anyway. Trump was an answer to their problems for a lot of people. They still have the same problems now. But Trump could certainly plug the cord. It would certainly be better to give us a chance to bend things back to a more unified focus. America against the virus to start, and go from there. Conflict of such a nature should be avoided unless the actual Republic is under threat.

And Trump has some control over this.

It is naive to think they won’t make a deal. Just telling Trump to get out and daring him to start a war is a bad strategy. Make a deal and he concedes. And whatever deal it better disallow Trump stoking unrest or fomenting rebellion in the future. Make that deal and we get peace and a chance to unify. Because the alternative is we kill each other.