Compromise, Trump-style
December 1860. After a decade of increased tension between north and south, Abraham Lincoln defeated US Senator Stephen Douglas in the more populous of two regional presidential elections held that year (vice president John C Breckinridge of Kentucky defeated retiring US Senator John Bell of Tennessee in the southern states election held at the same time; the election of 1860 wasn’t designed that way, but that’s how it worked out.) and was elected president with less than 40% of the popular vote but a clear majority in the electoral college.
And, within a month, South Carolina was gone and the other Deep South states were moving that direction.
At which point, retiring senator John Crittenden of Kentucky, a devoted Unionist, attempted to ride to the rescue with a compromise plan. And what a compromise it was. Crittenden knew another set of promises (“ok, ok, this time we’ll really enforce the Fugitive Slave Act”) wouldn’t fly. He developed a package of six constitutional amendments, guaranteeing, among other things, that slave owners would be reimbursed for runaway slaves and that slavery would always be legal in the District of Columbia. The amendments also prohibited Congress from interfering with the interstate slave trade or with slavery in existing slave states, restored the Missouri Compromise line as a boundary between slave and non-slave areas in the territories, and guaranteed that the Fugitive Slave Act and the Three-Fifths Compromise would remain in force forever. Basically, if the compromise had been agreed to, the only “give” from the southern states would have been, “Well, ok, we won’t secede, for now.”
And those same secessionists who seceded in 1861, because they feared Lincoln would take their slaves a few years later, after inflicting the worst catastrophe the country ever experienced to defend the institution of slavery, decided, well, no, actually, ignore everything we said in 1861: it was really all about ….. federal over-reach. And, 157 years later, here we are.
Andrew Yang came up with a similar “compromise” this week, which now seems to have become a near-universal Republican talking point. Yang identified that the Trumpsters are becoming angrier and more violent. We really need to calm things down, said the new “third way” leader and that FBI raid surely wasn’t helpful. We need to stop pissing them off and then maybe they’ll make nice.
That was exactly the quality of “thinking” I came to expect from Andrew Yang. Of all people, insurrectionist Rep. Scott Perry expressed similar sentiments and now it’s everywhere. Stop persecuting Trump and maybe we won’t burn the country down.
So has our democracy come down to this? The one most willing to kill democracy wins?
Here’s another idea: start arresting people and prosecute them.
Disbar the lawyer who said all the classified documents had been returned. Did Trump lie to her? Fine, let her argue in court that she’s innocent and it was all Trump. Let her conduct a defense; don’t do it for her.
Arrest and prosecute Sydney Powell. Sydney Powell didn’t just lie about Dominion election machines. She got her hands on raw data that she had no right to, and circulated it to a Star Wars bar scene set of nuts, kooks, and conspiracy theorists. Let her argue that she was deceived by downstate election returns. Or the ghost of Hugo Chavez. Or Rudy Giuliani. Or whatever.
Charge and arrest Scott Perry, Peter Navarro, Bernie Kerik, Mike Lindel, Roger Stone, the Overstock guy, and all those civil servants who were willing — eager — to betray their oaths.
Arrest and charge everyone, from the fake electors up to Trump, who participated in the fake electors scheme. We are looking at lawlessness on a scale that beggars belief.
And, for god’s sake, stop excusing and enabling Trump. Arrest him for one or more of his crimes. The 9 counts of obstruction Mueller documented. Election interference in Georgia. Or any of 10 other states. Local charges of mail and tax fraud in Manhattan. Making war against the United States.
Perhaps most obvious of all, the classified documents. Trump didn’t just carelessly keep some documents. He kept extremely classified stuff. And refused to return it when it was requested. And had his lawyer lie and say it had all been returned. And personally reviewed it all.
People who don’t have the morals to know you don’t steal elections won’t be deterred by anything, except perhaps jail time.
It’s very nice we have an attorney general who is so judicious and so reluctant to look like he‘s acting for political reasons. But if there’s no punishment for stuff this grotesquely obvious, then Trump’s crimes just become dress rehearsals. When Cliven Bundy decided he didn’t want to pay his bills and nobody got charged with insurrection, when the militias who took over Gettysburg got treated like law enforcement partners rather than insurrectionists, when the cops waved at Kyle Rittenhouse and gave him a water bottle, we were three large steps closer to kidnapping and executing Gretchen Whitmer and assaulting the Capitol.
If Trump is charged, we know the MAGA base is going to melt down. Trump will predictably play the victim and will be happy to rip the country to shreds. At least if the MAGA base gets violent now, we can be pretty sure the national law enforcement and military authorities will know who the enemy is. Does anyone doubt whether Trump 47 or De Santis 47 or Mastriano 47 would be able to find a MAGA 4 star general to replace Milley? Our democracy is looking at its last election cycle unless we all get serious.
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This series is written to promote political discussion and organizing. Permission is given to use this in fact sheets, talking points, letters to the editor, etc. We’d appreciate if you notified Gettysburg DFA (leonsreed@gmail.com) of any uses. Written by Leon Reed.
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