The place is Earth Alliance Space Station Babylon 5, in the year 2260. The players are one “Mr. Morden,” a human representative of an ancient and powerful alien race known as The Shadows, and Vir Cotto, attaché to Centauri Ambassador Londo Mollari. The Shadows have recently been supporting the Centauri in a considerable military campaign against another alien race: the Narn, and Cotto and Mollari both have been deeply involved in that conflict, though Vir has strongly opposed it from its beginning.

The two meet as they have on multiple occasions in the Zocalo, a popular market and gathering place on the station. The following is toward the end of their conversation:

Mr. Morden: If restoring the Centauri Republic means nothing to you, what does? What do you want?

Vir Cotto: I’d like to live just long enough to be there when they cut off your head and stick it on a pike, as a warning to the next 10 generations that some favors come with too high a price. I would look into your lifeless eyes and wave, like this [Vir waves tauntingly at Mr. Morden]. Can you and your associates arrange that for me, Mr. Morden?

As those of us who followed the television series Babylon 5 know, Vir did indeed get his wish, though at a price. In the wake of three-and-a-half years of the foolishness, the boorishness, and the general ignominy which has been the presidency of Donald John Trump, I have my own wish. It is not as violent or lethal as Vir Cotto’s was, but it is similar in its ultimate purpose.

So what do I want? Oh, this and that:

• I want to see Trump utterly embarrassed in the run-up to the election, in advertisements, in speeches attacking him and his policies by Democratic representatives, and most of all, in any debates, where I fully expect him to fall on his face against Joe Biden.
• I want to see him defeated so soundly in November that there can be no doubt in the minds of the voting public, not just of his ineptitude in the office of president, but the indisputable corruption which characterizes and accompanies everything he does. That defeat should be a landslide, both in the popular and electoral venues, of a scale comparable to the drubbing Barry Goldwater took from LBJ in 1964.
• Once Trump is routed at the polls, he must be stopped from using his remaining presidential power to take any actions which would further endanger the United States and general world wellbeing. Considering that Trump is greatly motivated by his own hurt feelings and a desire for revenge and has little to no impulse control, the likelihood of his taking such action in the wake of his defeat strikes me as high to the point of near-certainty. This must be prevented.
• Finally and importantly, the instant Trump is no longer president, he is instantly arrested and led away, preferably in handcuffs, with full and considerable media coverage of his being treated no better than a common criminal (which he is). The rest of his life should be spent initially in courtrooms and ultimately in prison, at last paying the price for his lifelong disregard for the law and the utter contempt he clearly had for any form of oversight.

I should mention that similar treatment should be afforded his children, particularly Jared Kushner, Donald Trump, Jr., Eric Trump, and Ivanka Trump, business associates, and his enablers in government, which should include Mitch McConnell, Mike Pompeo, and William Barr, all of whom should be at minimum investigated, with all appropriate corrective action taken. Under no circumstances should any of the above-named be pardoned or otherwise given a pass on their actions, and I do not think that a President Biden would be much disposed to do so.

Is this revenge? Of a sort, perhaps, but it is also a lesson and a warning, much like that Vir Cotto cited. Even as “some favors come with too high a price,” so do the kind of glaring acts of foolishness which putting an incompetent, narcissistic sociopath in charge of our country represent. This lesson will need to be placed front and center in our educational efforts, as well as made a constant reminder to anyone who would participate in our government, that they are there to SERVE and NOT to BE SERVED. Said reminder should include the fact that the days of the Trump administration saw considerable damage done to our government and stature in the world, and repair of those both will require far more time to accomplish than the hurt took.

Presuming Donald Trump can be removed from office, we will have dodged a bullet. We need to learn from that, because we may not be so lucky next time, and that is too high a price to pay twice.