Trump matchup

Trump presents one big brand: the take-what's-mine nasty bully. He is type-cast. The brand has appeal to his base.

Democrats should counter him, but not copy him.

The nation's op-ed pages are buzzing with comments about civility. Sarah Huckabee Sanders got asked to leave a restaurant. People yelled something vulgar at the Homeland Security secretary. Steven Miller got insulted. Robert DeNiro and Maxine Walters said something nasty. 

Democrats are playing me-too with Trump style vulgarity. Mistake.

Trump fundraising letter. One of several.

I am receiving two or three emails per day from the Donald Trump campaign expressing outrage about this extraordinary lack of civility. This one had the subject line "Harassment."

Meanwhile, Democratic activists are enjoying the feeling of giving it back to Trump, and people associated with Trump. 

Trump is a crude bully so giving him a taste of his own medicine feels right. Here's an example, from a post headlined "Here's a suggestion or hope for the activists living in Washington. Troll and harass Neil Gorsuch." The letter suggested "Humiliate the freaking bastard. Shame him for his actions.  Actually you can so it to all the ones who voted for the Muslim ban. Fuck them!"

This anger and tone backfires on Democrats.  It feeds resentment over Democratic hypocrisy and it motivates Trump's base.

Blunt from the gut.

It helps to think off Donald Trump as a performer in a long running TV show. Various characters are understood in different roles. Donald Trump owns the nasty-bully-insulting-man of power-space. He is the guy who says what other people think, and he doesn't care if it sounds stupid or cruel to some people. He is the guy who makes a loud burp at a dinner party--and doesn't try to suppress it, because it is his big house. Trump is what Archie Bunker character would be, had he won a huge lottery and then become president.

Trump's character resents the judgement and restraints of "polite company" of experts and coastal elites and college town liberals, for example the  people who would expect the burp to be suppressed. They are the same people who would expect common respect to be given to blacks or Muslims or women or immigrants or foreign countries. Trump is itching to find hypocrisy. You burp too, but don't admit it. You get nervous around blacks, too, and you know it. You don't like Muslims either, admit it!  

There is a market for this message. Trump has some 90% approval rating among Republicans.

What can Democrats do?

Anti-Trump TV comics are pulling at Trump playing the role of truth-teller, the emperor-has-no-clothes. But this has the same problem as does all Democratic incivility. When they insult Trump they also insult the people who agree with Trump. Comic insults are not the answer. 

Democrats need an asymmetric powerful character. Think Rock-Paper-Scissors. 

Rock doesn't defeat Rock. In the game it is a tie, but in real life a Democratic Rock would be inherently weaker, a copy-cat. Democrats need a person who represents an entirely different kind of respect and power. Someone from the military. Someone from the Department of Justice. Some government executive. Some business executive. Someone from the news media.

Trump is either much more strategic than he is thought to be--or he is very, very lucky.  Trump has worked assiduously to undermine the reputation of those alternative sources of credibility and power. Trump is the Rock who has called the Paper of the media "fake" and the Scissors of the Justice Department biased and corrupt. Trump wasn't just building himself up; he was simultaneously weakening the ladders of credibility and power for an opponent.

In other circumstances, the former head of the FBI could serve as the opposition candidate to a guy like Trump, Paper to Trump's Rock. In other circumstances a journalist would play that role--Walter Cronkite. Trump got there first, calling the Justice Department biased, and news "fake." 

Trump is good at fighting smart and dirty.

Somewhere out there is the next Democratic nominee. He or she won't be Trump-like, nor anti-Trump. Same or opposite won't work. It will be Paper or Scissors, something different from Trump's Rock.