We live in a two party political system. Which means that political choices at the the national level are functionally going to be between two choices.
The Republican party has made abundantly clear that Choice #1 is Trump. Not only as a presidential candidate, but always as a symbol and example-setter for the whole party. By nature of the two choice system, whatever the Democrats are putting forward as Choice #2 is always going to be compared to what the Republicans are putting forward, which is again unquestionably Trump and MAGA politics.
So yeah, the conversation is always going to be a comparison to Trump, and it always will be until the option that the Republicans are providing is not Trump.