Trump, Finding An Acorn

ONCE IN A BLUE MOON an old blind squirrel finds an acorn. And, truth be told, if ever a squirrel were blind, it is none other than Donald J. Trump, whose verifiably inane, thought-free remarks could fill decades worth of "quote of the day" tear off calendars. And, his remark just the other day to the effect that in his view the American Civil War could have been avoided through negotiation, though maligned as usual by the usual discerning people, actually, upon closer reflection, aint so stupid after all. Impractical, unrealistic, definitely. Purely speculative fantasy, maybe. But really, not so stupid. Trump, like everybody else, was weighing in on Nikki Haley's now famous attribution of the causes of the Civil War without mentioning the word "slavery". She hemmed and hawed vaguely about how to govern, who rules, whatever, but never got to the point. (Of course, she's from the south). Yes, it was about slavery, as all the Confederate states made plain at the time in their formal secession documents. This notion of "state's rights" and "Lost, noble causes" as causes are pure, confederate-friendly justification, revisionist bullcrap. Trump never said anything about bout slavery either,(maybe he doesn't know about it), but only that the war could have been avoided through negotiated settlement. One obvious fact about the "War Between the States" is that nobodoy had any idea beforehand how horribly bloody and destructive the war would eventually become. Everyoen thought that it would be quick and clean. Both sides were convinced of a quick victory. Ironically, there wa at the time a growing awareness, thorughout the nation, including the slave holding south, that the institution of slavery, eventually, would have to be phased out of existence, simply because it could not be allowed to exist indefinitely into the future. That fact in itself contained the seed sof potential negotiated settlement. The promise of an eventual abolition of slavery, through slow stages, stages which would give slave holders a soft landing without undue economic hardship, as they simultaneously transitioned from outright slavery to paid farm labor. Already, long since, in 1818, the importation of slaves from Africa had been outlawed. A beginning had been made. The foundation had been laid for the gradual withering away of the "peculiar institution", which everybody recognized as contrary to basic Amrican values of freedom and equality. Regarding the hot issue of the day, the westward expansion of the United States, the admission of new states into the union, and whether they would be slave or free states, part of the negotiated settlement could have included provisions as to how the voters of the new states could decide that issue, with the provision that any new state which voted for slavery, would immediately be subject to the arrngements regarding the eventual end of slavery. Say, "by the year nineteen fifty there shall be no slavery allowed in these United States". Something to that effect. The salient point is, there are no conflicts between people or groups of people, such as countries, which cannot be resolved through negotiation, and without violence. This, because there is no law of nature, even human nature, which prevents this. And if Donald J. Trump is smart enough to understand that, so are the rest of us.