Orlando Sentinel

Dems, don’t go high or low. Go big and bold.

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for him — now a virtual propaganda arm of the White House. The rest are against him even when they report the news.

We’re all being taken in by this Trumpian dichotomy — even those of us in the anti-Trump camp.

The Trumpifica­tion of America hardly ends if Democrats take over the House or possibly the Senate. Trump will blame them for everything that goes wrong. He’ll make up problems they’re supposedly responsibl­e for. He’ll ridicule them and call them traitors.

He’ll do the same to anyone who shows serious interest in running for president against him in 2020.

Naturally, Democrats will want to defend themselves. Naturally, they’ll also want to attack Trump. If they flip the House, they’ll use their subpoena power to dredge up whatever dirt on him they can find — summoning his tax records, special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigat­ive findings — and perhaps even beginning impeachmen­t proceeding­s.

Trump and his GOP enablers will fight back, condemning Democrats for weakening America, engaging in fishing expedition­s and witch hunts. Trump and his lawyers will tie up the subpoenas in court, claiming executive privilege.

Aspiring Democratic candidates for president will join in the brawl. Op-ed writers, editorial boards and pundits will argue over the best ways for Democrats to proceed against Trump — going low or going high. Pollsters will tell us which Democratic candidate is seen as being most effective against him.

But all of this is a trap. It accepts and enforces Trump’s worldview that nothing is more important than Donald Trump, that he embodies all that’s good or bad about America, and that our most significan­t choice is to be for him or against him.

It allows Trump to continue to dominate the news and occupy the center of the nation’s attention.

The central question shouldn’t be whether we’re pro- or anti-Trump, or whether we go low or high in fighting him.

The question is where America should go — and what we, together, can become.

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