So, Donald Trump really is Donald Trump. He is so absorbed by his self-image as an indomitable leader of a nation he’ll make great again that he does not notice when he is querulously sinking into quicksand.
Whatever else it did, Wednesday’s showdown debate excavated the chasm dividing Trump and Hillary Clinton. A chasm not just of temperament but also of fundamental approaches to America’s many internal problems and global challenges.
For international viewers, it indicated no reasons to hope for a US administration that will be nice to live with whichever of the two opposite poles wins on November 8. Both came off as sharp-edged petulant hard-heads who thoroughly disdain each other.
One is generous with untruths and the other is parsimonious even with half-truths. Both stuck knives into festering wounds and neither deserved a handshake for likeability.
Worse, it became regrettably clear that the Republican Party may never again be the same. Regardless of whether Trump wins, it will be tainted by his colors or might be overwhelmed by those carrying his banner.
Alas for dutiful citizens who must vote, there was little new to learn. In its final straight, the elections look like an extraordinarily partisan combat with hearts and minds closed on both sides towards civility and reasoned argument.
And now, with Trump’s shriller cries of rigged voting, the combat might actually turn violent and spill onto streets if he loses, as is most likely. What a sight that will be for the world to see and so comforting for America’s enemies.
“Such a nasty woman,” he said of Hillary Clinton in the final showdown. Then rising to the valiant task of saving America from such nastiness, he refused to declare that he will accept the election verdict.
Thus, with what he may think signals a strong man, he departed from 240-years of the fine tradition of peaceful transfers of power in US democracy.
Like a pouting child, he skirted disagreeable thoughts of defeat, saying, “I will look at it at the time”. He wants to keep up the “suspense”.
With those portent-filled words in the current angry atmosphere of US partisan politics, Trump dealt a blow to democracy no less lethal than 9/11 was to American civil liberties and Lehman Brothers was to American capitalism.
The damage is done whether Hillary wins or loses. If she wins, Trump may destroy the most precious feature of any democratic system – the peaceful and orderly transfer of power.
If she loses, the world may have to live by a new calendar of “before” and “after” Trump.
Doubt has already been cast on the pertinence of America’s institutions as a model for the world.
For decades, the US has preached law-abiding democracy, freedom of expression, human rights and open markets to a global order where authoritarian state-controlled systems far outnumber others.
The debate again illustrated Trump’s awful talent of addicting his core supporters to anger and distrust about the fairness of institutions that have built America’s greatness so far.
President Barack Obama calls it whining but Trump is astutely stoking more anger about the fairness of elections, wisdom of the supreme court and the central pillars of American economic, trade and security policies.
Despite Clinton’s gory attacks, he retreated not an inch from his astonishing promises. He still wants to build his anti-immigration wall, throw out millions of illegal immigrants, deny women the rights to their bodies or expect decency from men, leave allies in the lurch about US reliability, repeal Obamacare, make the rich still richer, and much else.
Remarkably, he still sees Russia’s Vladimir Putin and Syria’s Bashar Assad as more worthy leaders than Obama.
Clinton made her usual intelligent points but may have preached only to her own choir. Perhaps, she tilted some women and minorities to her side but her performance did not seem piercing enough to motivate people for a much larger turnout.
Trump seems to believe that you haven’t lost until you’ve lost. In any case, he is in a win-win situation.
If he loses, he will be saved from the painful slings and arrows that continuously rain upon a US President.
He will win even if he loses because he is now a global celebrity and has unprecedented name recognition in addition to some 25 million followers on social media.
If he keeps his business head screwed on, he can surely make many more bucks in the global economy because of his brand. People around the world will forget his political ignominy but recall his name. That has to be good for selling stuff, even snake-oil.
In any case, some 40 per cent of Americans are expected to remain loyal to him in defeat. So his ideas that the likes of Clinton find so contemptible are sure to live on since he is hardly likely to stride silently out into the night.
He already seems to be toying with building a grand media empire as an extension of his voice.