The third presidential debate is over. Donald Trump’s run for the presidency is over. He is a lost cause. That was not a man ready for the American presidency we saw last night, it was a spoiled child acting out.
From our first observations of this year’s American process for choosing a president, we have rated Donald Trump’s odds as long. It is not as if we knew much about the man. Never watched him on television. Have never knowingly been in a Trump-built building. And have never gambled in a Trump casino. Our paths have never crossed. Our opinion was based on the man’s lack of political experience. He is no politician. He does not like them.
And that is what his rag-tag army of followers like about him. He is entertainment, not politics. He is anger, not policy. He panders to prejudices. He appeals to the ignorant. He is a reality show posing as political strategy.
He made the colossal mistake of criticizing his own political party to the point where its leadership started disavowing him. This is unprecedented in American politics. How he will get those dumber followers of his to the polls to vote is a good question? He is losing states in the polls that have not voted Democratic since reconstruction after the American Revolution.
Last night in the debate, Trump was abusive, bellicose, childish, devious and you can keep going through the alphabet of ugly adjectives for a loser. There was a better moderator but even he had difficulty shouting down Trump’s tirades. And Secretary Clinton lost it a one point and the moderator could not shout her down. It was nobody’s shining hour.
But the entire debate hung on one crucial point. It was the discussion of accepting the decision of the voters. A fundamental of English and North American democracy is the acceptance by the candidates of the decision of the voters. When the moderator asked Secretary Clinton, she immediately affirmed her belief in that principle. Donald Trump refused. With the spite of an angry child, Trump truculently refused to acknowledge that the decision of the voters is final. He smirked and told the viewers to wait and see.
Nobody wins a debate such as this. It was interesting to see a very confident and aggressive Hillary Clinton—that bodes well for the next four years. At the same time, it was not the Donald Trump everybody expected. It is probably too bad that there are no drug tests for these events. Trump seemed to be in a different time zone.
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Copyright 2016 © Peter Lowry
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