END GAME: WHAT DO WE WANT?

We are watching the slow, agonizing dissolution of Donald Trump. We should be figuring out what we want?

Do we want him to keep fighting, by assuming a Martyr’s Role, and running for President again?

Do we want him to cut a deal with President Biden, exchanging his political future for immunity or a pardon?

These are the two most likely possibilities.

Do we want him to run for President again? Even with all the charges and indictments and judgments he may be facing? A relative of mine writing in the NYT suggests that he might win, recalling that he once said he could shoot someone dead and survive politically?

I say no. Running again would be an insult to the American people. Were he to win we would face replay of the his last years with the gloves off and the prospect of a democracy-ending national conflict.

If we can control events, then I vote he is denied even a chance at returning to the White House. Even if the polls were favoring the Democrat, I would still say no. Trump running again again strikes me as unthinkable.

That leaves some sort of exit deal.

At this point, pleading the Fifth and getting indicted for one of about ten juicy crimes in NY State, Georgia and Washington suggests the possibility that the odds on a conviction or two will be strong enough to open up an exit deal. I have mentioned Biden as a deal-maker. It is not out of the question.

This is where we come in.

My “we” includes all who feel as I do that we have had more than enough of Trump. But also that we need to be certain his political career is stopped cold. We don’t have a St. Helena, but we can improvise.

Momentum is building toward a genuine domino catastrophe for Donald Trump. It might come with pleading the Fifth to legendary proportions, accompanied by more shrieks of protest or by a gradual diminution of support as the GOP limps slowly back to sanity.

Let’s assume that the threat that he will run remains his Ace in the Hole. That is not worth gambling on if you are the Dems. It is tempting. Donald reducing the whole GOP hopeful pool to being Jeb Bush clones? Delicious but Yesterday.

All those cases and indictments are today.

I say push hard now with the goal of disempowering Trump while we still can. As the globally-embarrassing nominee in 2024, Trump would remain a threat. We are closer to stopping him now than ever. We have to keep the pressure on. Until an immediate EXIT DEAL becomes possible.

There is another problem.

Ron DiSantis. He is Trump with political skills. He is as dangerous as Trump. He can run away with the whole thing. Intelligent folk who fear DiSantis will want Trump to spoil his chances. And it is a reasonable gamble that Trump is the only way to stop him.

Parenthetically, DiSantis could fall to Charlie Christ in November. That would be a happy event. But that might make DiSantis all the more motivated to go for it with Trump.

My safer suggestion is to stick with today’s news. Trump takes the Fifth. Trump faces serious indictments. Is there a Deal on the table? A Way Out. We need an all around face-saver.

So what do we do? We push for legal means to disempower Trump so he cannot run for political office. We hold out a deal that could spare him suit after suit and possible jail. We (at all costs) capture that Blue Wave in November. We try as best we can to trade our future for something that disempowers Trump to the point that he shuts up.

Impossible? Perhaps. I think I have sketched at least some reality. Now let us see how close this turns out to be.