Beating Charisma with Charisma

 Charisma:  Compelling attractiveness or charm inspiring love or devotion in others

--Oxford English Dictionary

Charisma is generally spoken of as a good attribute possessed by a good person, but there have been some pretty unappetizing people who succeeded by charisma: Hitler being the most obvious example. We think of Hitler today as being repellent, but to many Germans he was irresistibly attractive in a time when Germans felt Germany was flat on its back and Hitler offered supreme competence and reassurance.

Trump, too, is a candidate of charisma. For 60% of us, he may be repellent, but for that core 40%, he, like Hitler, is irresistible.

As Hillary Clinton and the entire Democratic party and all its elected officials have discovered, you cannot beat Mr. Trump with policies and discussions. You have to beat him on the ground where he makes his bloody stand: the colluseum of personality, humor and shouting. You do not debate Mr. Trump--you enter a World Wrestling Association ring with him.

Now, you will say Democrats have charismatic leaders: Gretchen Whitmer, Gavin Newsom, Jamie Raskin, J.B. Pritsker. But the fact is, if they were to enter the race now, the Republicans' disinformation/oppoisition research machine would quickly launch its swift boat attacks.

And, fact is, none of them are famous enough. Nor have they the kind of fame I'm talking about.

No, what Democrats need is a candidate of charisma who has such a long presence in the national consciousness he cannot be swifted, or swift boated.

This candidate must be already famous and unimpeachable and widely loved.

But who can fill that bill?

First the categories: Eliminate from consideration any politician, elected office holder. All too vulnerable and nobody with national standing.

Eliminate academics for reasons too innumerable to enumerate.

Consider sports stars: Tom Brady, Caitlin Clark, Aaron Rodgers. Nope, nope, nope. Brady's a Trumpie; Rodgers is a lunatic, anti vaaxer and Caitlin is too young to run.

So that leaves entertainers. Only this group has people who are known from Birmingham to Boston, from Providence to Peoria, from Oregon to Oshkosh.

Among this group there may be many worthies, but the most obvious would be a man who has played a gay lawyer, a hero with autism, an Army officer who saves a soldier who was the last surviving son in a family, a bereft widower seeking love on the internet, a man washed up on a deserted island, the conductor of a magical train to the North Pole on Christmas eve.

THAT guy could walk away with the 2024 election.

But first, people in power would have to understand all this, would have to defer their own ambitions, would have to put country (and democracy) above personal reward.

I'm not sure our party or our government is up to this challenge.

But it's comforting to know there's a solution out there: If only we will reach for it.

And if the Democratic Party is not up to the challenge, well, as in the days of Weimar, perhaps we deserve everything which is headed our way with the Storm Front.