I dunno what it is about Very Serious People in American politics assuming that the correct approach to a fascist demagogue is to stay right above it and not embarrass the country somehow by addressing reality because it's too gauche; but this is not how history works, particularly American political history.
American politics *IS* mud-wrestling with a pig; always has been. You don't win elections here by "appealing to the better angels of our nature." That's the history.