Thursday, July 5, 2018

Pow! Trump has an opponent.

Lawyer Michael Avenatti announces Presidential bid.


"He keeps popping Donald Trump and all his friends in the mouth. The Democrats could learn something."

                                                                          Fox News

There has been exactly one person on the public stage who has stood toe to toe with Donald Trump and has hit Trump back, harder. Michael Avenatti, the lawyer for Stormy Daniels.

Avenatti is the guy doing the hitting.
Trump has made himself the dominator, the self confident bully of American politics. He is the center of attention, the guy who commands every news cycle. He presents to the public not as a nice or reasonable guy, but as the tough, cruel guy who fights for his team, his base.

So does Avenatti. 

Avenatti doesn't flinch. He doesn't back town. He stares the camera in the eye and says Trump is dead wrong and a liar.

Avenatti: "I always liked the Daily News! Be clear - only a steet fighter has a chance at replacing the 'King'."

Asked whether he was prepared or experienced or qualified, Avenatti gave a blunt answer: Yes. He said he has what Trump does not have: brains, heart, and courage. What does he stand for? He opposes Trump on the issue of family separation and he is pro choice on abortion. He passes a litmus test.

The instinct of Democrats will be to look for someone who is the opposite of Trump, a reasonable person, an experienced person, likely a Senator or Governor. Someone nice to counter someone vulgar.

There is a problem with this. An experienced politician will be a consensus builder, by finding common ground, but Trump does not seek common ground with political opponents. Trump slams them. He insults them. He calls them names. He says they are weak or low IQ or crooked or wacky or crazy. 


Click: I suggested this back on May 20.
Democrats need to notice the obvious. Only one party to a confrontation is necessary to make it a fight, and that is the Trump formula. People witness this--are impressed or appalled--but either way they take away a notion that Trump is strong and he kicks people around. The message is that he can be strong on behalf of America in matters of trade, defense, and protection of our borders. 

His experienced opponents have looked weak in comparison. That is because they are doing politics and Trump is doing street fighting, so they are out-gunned.  Avenatti said, "To those that claim that only a traditional politician with 'experience' can beat Trump, go back and look at the results from 2016. He beat all 15 of those candidates that he faced (crushed many.) If we go down the same path and are not smart, don't be surprised with the result."

Democrats' temptation will be to laugh off Avenatti as a self-interested, media-loving, talker, a guy with a message but no experience. Note that this describes Trump, too, and Trump demolished experienced politicians. Whatever else, Avenatti is almost certainly more reasonable and willing to learn than is Trump. Trump is a warrior but he can be stopped by a warrior. There are several types of warriors, but one type is the aggressive bulldog lawyer. It is exactly who any of us would hire if we had a problem with a bully.

America has a problem and Avenatti is our smart, bulldog lawyer. 

That's what Republicans think they have with Trump--their bully.  Avenatti is a better, smarter, braver one. One with better values. One that doesn't brag about grabbing p***ies. One who only went bankrupt once. One who isn't oddly close to Putin. One who is pro-choice. One who got famous as a defender of women. 

One who isn't afraid of Trump.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

If he could actually beat Trump and would be someone willing to listen to actual government experts - and bring back a functioning government - I wouldn't object. I would have totally objected 2 years ago. But the point is well taken - trump beat all the expert politicians around him in both parties. If that's where we are maybe it's time to fight fire with fire.

Anonymous said...

Well...we shall see what he has said in the past, what skeletons come flying out, how he handles fake news (be it pro or con about him). Funny how events and statements come out...events and comments from 10, 20, 30 years ago. Your blog is so anti-Trump biased that I have a hard time believing you...or at least this article. Should be interesting...

Anonymous said...

Mark Cuban is another one who could take on Trump. But he said he would run as a Republican. That wouldn’t work. However, if he ran as a Democrat, he could easily stand toe to toe with him. Bullies don’t like being challenged. Cuban has the money and the smarts to knock Trump down. When you take on Trump, you can’t be nice. You have to be tougher than him. You have to let him have it right between the eyes. Smack him down like nobody has ever done before. That’s the way to beat him. No nice guys in this fight.