If Donald Trump had conceded his loss to Joe Biden, he would not now be facing four conspiracy and obstruction charges in Washington, D.C., and 13 felony racketeering charges in Georgia.

His 91 felony charges across four jurisdictions lead to the following mathematical formula: one weak ego, multiplied by an Olympian ease of lying, when added to a history of never having been held accountable, provides an estimated duration of incarceration.

By mid-December 2020, when his court appeals had failed, when his attorney general, Bill Barr, and numerous White House officials said it was over, a concession of the election would have spared more than a hundred law enforcement officers from brutal assaults by some of the more than 570 Jan. 6 rioters who have since pleaded guilty. And a concession would have meant that 78 other Jan. 6 domestic terrorists would not have been found guilty at trial.

And a concession would have spared Ashli Babbitt’s life, along with the lives of several Capitol and D.C. Metro law enforcement officers. If only Trump had considered that he is more man than archangel, and admitted his loss.

If Trump had been big enough to have picked up the phone and congratulated his opponent, then more than 80 fake electors would not now be squirming about possible criminal charges. Tucker Carlson might still be working at Fox News, given that Trump and his minions would have had no reason to hype the fiction of vote switching by Dominion machines. And Fox News would have been spared the trouble of shelling out $787 million in damages to Dominion.

If Trump had set aside his fragile self-esteem long enough to concede, then a Utah senior citizen, “MAGA Trumper” Craig Robertson, would probably be alive today. But Robertson’s boots had sunk so deeply into the mire that he pointed his gun at FBI agents who were doing nothing more than attempting to assess the level of threat he posed to Biden.

Robertson (who also had posted his wish to “smoke” FBI agents) had written that he was “dusting off” his rifle upon learning that President Biden was coming to Utah. I do not doubt the shock expressed by Robertson’s neighbors, who described him as a good man, a helpful man. But when the FBI arrived, he came out pointing a gun at them. And now he is dead.

Had Trump never begun his Big Lie, the extremist wing of the GOP electorate would not now continue to drift untethered from reality and the party would be less likely to be heading for another defeat in the next presidential race. Indeed, much would be different, but for the Trumpian fantasy of a stolen election.

Despite the many differences in our cultural and political landscapes that a concession would have rendered, some things would remain unchanged.

Trump still would have been found liable for sexual assault in the E. Jean Carroll civil suit and he would continue to face 40 felonies in his document grab, as well as 34 business fraud charges in New York. Republicans would continue busying themselves with efforts to generate an equivalence between Trump’s alleged criminal outrages and hypothetical offenses committed by Biden for the “crime” of being father to a misguided son. And GOP leaders would still be thinking hard about recent pro-choice victories in swing states and pondering whether to continue their vigorous opposition to abortion rights.

Nevertheless, many of the tangled webs facing America never would have been spun, if only Trump had conceded the election. Although Trump isn’t the sort to think beyond his next lie, if had he had conceded in 2020, he now would enjoy better odds of being reelected in 2024. And Craig Robertson and Ashli Babbitt would be alive to vote for him. And his most fervent supporters would not continue to grapple with determining where Trump ends and the deity begins.