OP, are you referring to the first bit of my post?
My “competent Trump” wouldn’t be a boring Republican hack like Jeb or Rubio. He would still be boisterous, anti-PC, and revel in taking a torch to the establishment, but he would avoid landmines that hurt and embarrass him. Or he could just be a better person not plagued by stories of sex scandals, cheating on his wife, or stiffing workers. One could argue some landmines actually helped him. Maybe saying McCain isn’t a hero just because he got captured signals that he won’t bow and scrape to RINOs. Or you could say there were so many dumb statements they inoculated him, e.g. “Hey man, that’s just Trump being Trump!”
It might also depend on which narrative you favor: Trump won because America is so racist and misogynist versus Trump won because of economic populism. He savaged Democrats for supporting NAFTA and TPP, being Wall St. toadies, and importing immigrants for cheap labor and votes. That’s the sort of nationalist rhetoric Democrats need an answer for, because they didn’t have any good ones last time. Go ahead and defend NAFTA and say how great it is and cite all the academic sources you like, just don’t expect to win the places it affected.