George W. Bush is a gentleman and his father, George H.W. is too, even more so. Both were attacked maliciously and aggressively by the media and by their political opponents. I admired the civility of both presidents who were above the fray. But their presidencies suffered defeats because they were unwilling to fight fire with fire.  Donald J. Trump is a different man, a different politician and a different president. Trump is a street fighter. He is going to be aggressive and cunning when politicians and the media come after him.

President Trump is naturally combative, having honed his skills on construction sites among hard-hat workers. He knows the common man and he believes that if you don’t stand up to a bully, he’ll run over you and enjoy doing it. He does not back off from a fight, and that’s exactly why working class and middle-America elected him President. The American people are tired of political bullies who throw their weight around and hit below the belt rhetorically. Donald Trump in effect said, “You hit me, I’ll hit you 10 times harder and I’ll throw you out of the ring.” Voters in 2016 responded that they wanted the bullies busted!

I prefer civility. I like a good debate. I was a champion intercollegiate debate coach. I like confronting opponents with respectful, cordial and logical argument. Generally speaking, that’s how things are or should be done. The GOP was fairly good at that -- but in the past the media-political complex generally were also playing by common rules of engagement; civil exchanges were expected in the halls of power. Yes, there were exceptions and media distortions are nothing new, but there used to be limits (celebrity children were off limits and the public didn’t learn of John F. Kennedy’s infidelities until after his death); civility was expected in the media and in person.

A dividing line of sorts was crossed by the Democrats and the media when got away with their war on the nomination of Robert Bork to the Supreme Court. Things got progressively worse under President George W. Bush. Books and movies presented fantasies of his assassination.

With Trump, the media has come totally unglued. The old rules of the past no longer apply. Not only are the POTUS and FLOTUS subject to personal invective, their pre-teen son, Barron, is also fair game.

President Trump knows the American culture, probably better than his critics. He saw what happened to the Bush presidencies. He has seen the political establishment coast along without direction or impact. He intends to be an effective president and the media-political complex believe it is up to them to stop him. They are determined and will stoop to any level.

The degree of personal vitriol and the politics of personal destruction that we are seeing today were rare in the past and was immediately squelched when it erupted. The current levels of public ridicule and character assassination against a sitting President and his family are unprecedented, at least in my lifetime. Immediately after the election, Howard Kurtz noted that Madonna claimed she “often thought” of “blowing up the White House” and there was no media pushback. A Saturday Night Live comedienne, Katie Rich, “tweeted a sick joke about Trump’s son” and then deleted it. Another journalist contrasted the “honorable and elegant” Obama with the “crass and morally bankrupt” Trump. Since then, the commentary and reporting has become worse, as seemingly one after another tries to outdo the other with gutter language and inappropriate images.

There was the infamous cut-out of Trump’s bloody head held aloft by the unfunny “comedienne” Kathy Griffin. That media storm was nothing compared to the most recent brouhaha. The star of the “Morning Joe” show –– a staple of political Washington –– Joe Scarborough, a former GOP Congressman and long-time Trump “friend,” spent many a morning praising Trump and was among the first to predict his primary victory. Then, the tone changed (ironically the change coincided with his engagement to his co-star, Mika Brzezinski and, some say, a desire to jump from MSNBC to the supposed higher ground of CNN). Trump became “the greatest liar that’s ever sat in the White House.” In a shift of tone and rhetoric Trump became a “thug” and a “goon.” When Trump responded in a street fighter tweet, the media went on overdrive. Trump, according to CNN, became, “crude, false and unpresidential.” Our culture and the foundations of our nation have been savaged, the Media and self-righteous bleated.

The Bushes would have ignored the attacks, but Trump appears to relish the attention it generates when he gets into a brawl, and he launched a counter-offensive. Trump is fighting back against those who seek to destroy his presidency. Many of us would have been more comfortable with a more dignified response, but we cannot deny the effectiveness of Trump’s approach. Thus far, the public has seen through the media hypocrisy and is sticking with Trump.

It is laughable to hear the outrage and the moral posturing of the media-political complex. Yes, Trump can be crude. Remember LBJ? Yes, Trump has bragged about exploiting women. Uh, remember what Kennedy and Clinton actually did? Trump has made no pretense of being anything other than himself, but he does respect Christianity, America and the Judeo-Christian values and morals that we celebrate.  He intends to curb the excesses of today’s media and shake up the political establishment. While many of us may be uncomfortable with the way he is doing it, we can certainly applaud the fact that the corrupt, contemptible media-political complex has met its match in what appears to be turning into a duel to the death.