The media knew all along that Donald Trump would be a disaster. They indulged him nevertheless, first, in order to make the election competitive, and second, that he had energized a huge base with a strong message against Washington's "political correctness." But, they did not expect that he would become strong enough to win the election. Thus the media knew the blunder it had committed by indulging him when leading to the first debate, he showed the potential to winning the election. Therefore, when he performed disastrously in the first debate, 84 million Americans saw first-hand the real Donald Trump, the media turned its full attention on him and started the process to end his candidature.
Donald Trump has been the unexpected ally for the media in its effort to bring him down. Following his disastrous performance in the first debate, three pages of his tax returns were published by the New York Times (NYT) that gave the media better ammunition to bring him down further. The tax returns showed, first, instead of being the brilliant businessman that he claimed to be, he had failed very badly and in 1995 alone, he had filed for bankruptcy, losing close to US$ 1.0 billion. To add salt to the wound of his exalted ego, the tax papers also showed that from his bankruptcy, he had claimed tax exemptions and for the next 18 years, paid no tax at all.
In 2014, one reason why Mitt Romney had lost the election was he was found to have paid on an average only 14 per cent tax being a millionaire where middle-class Americans paid twice more in taxes. That was a very bad liability for Mitt Romney. Donald Trump is far richer and the fact that he did not pay a single cent as a tax for 18 years has the potential to sink Donald Trump's candidature. And, American voters have seen just three pages of one year's tax returns of Donald Trump with the lingering suspicion of worse news in his tax papers for other years that he refuses to release.
The tax returns, his disastrous performance in the first debate taken together with his outrageous messages of his hate-driven campaign were sending his standing in the polls towards a free fall and would have been enough to send his candidature into oblivion. Then the detestable nature of Donald Trump the man was revealed when a video that was taken in 2005 showed him graphically and casually talking about his sexual escapades. The nation was aghast that a Republican candidate bragging that he is a sexual predator is in the race to become the US president and close to winning it!
Billy Bush, the media star that NBC recently recruited for its signature "Today" show, was in the video sharing Donald Trump's crude and nasty bragging. He was seen and heard excitedly laughing when the candidate expressed language fit for only pornographic videos. NBC has sacked him since because it has concluded that no woman would watch the show after seeing the video. Donald Trump's fate with the women voters on November 08, 2016, could be the same as Billy Bush's who is a cousin of President GW Bush.
The video threw the Republican Party into the shock mode. Donald Trump dismissed the video as "locker room banter." He thought and confidently too, that like all the weird and offensive things that he had said on the campaign trail, this one would also go away. This did not happen as accusations from other women only established that Donald Trump is exactly the man he bragged in the video, a sexual predator who is attracted to women like a magnet and who considers it his right to fondle any woman without her permission because he is a "star". He had insulted women throughout the campaign and he did the same to those who brought sexually explicit accusations against him.
The sexually explicit video has been, to borrow a cliché, the straw that broke the Republican Party's back. It simply could not take Donald Trump on its back anymore to send him to the White House. The first signs of a civil war sort of situation between the Republican Party and the Donald Trump campaign came when an avalanche of Republicans in tough congressional races distanced themselves from the Trump campaign. House Speaker Paul Ryan cut Donald Trump loose and said he would have nothing to do with him. He advised Republicans in the congressional race to take the individual decision to determine how much of a liability Donald Trump is to their campaigns. Donald Trump retaliated in the only way he knows. He hurled insults at the Speaker and the Republican leaders in a manner like they were as much his adversaries as Hillary Clinton and the Democrats.
Thus by the time the third debate was held on October 19, there was very little interest in it any longer. Donald Trump was in a free fall in all the polls nationally where Hillary Clinton's lead went into the double digits. Hillary Clinton also led his opponent in these polls in all the swing states as well. Thus Washington Post in a write-up leading to the third debate wrote that it was no longer the question whether Donald Trump's path to the White House had narrowed or not; it simply had become non-existent!
Donald Trump's one last chance to resurrect his sinking campaign ship was lost in the third and last debate. He did that by introducing what has now become an issue more important to America than the presidential election which is as good as over with Hillary Clinton expected to become the 45th President of the United States by the prediction in the media and from the Republican Party leadership as well. At the debate, Donald Trump said that he would keep the nation in suspense about accepting or rejecting the election verdict unless he and his supporters were convinced it was not rigged which, by his own admission, would happen only if he won!
The statement has hurt American democracy at its base, its unquestionable pride in having evolved the most transparent and democratic system for peaceful transfer of power that has served the nation since its birth. In rallies after the last debate, Donald Trump went a step further in his crazy campaign and stated that he would accept the result only if he won which would prove the election has not been rigged! This statement has appalled both Democrats and Republicans except those from his base of alt right supporters in a manner worse than the sexually explicit video.
Perhaps Donald Trump thinks that unless America is reduced into a Third World country in all its manifestations which means breaking down the constitution and with it, all the institutions including its system of peaceful transfer of power, he would not have the satisfaction of making 'America Great Again'.
For America, therefore, it may not be the more relevant and important matter as to who wins on November 08 because at this stage Donald Trump has made himself history and its outcome, a foregone conclusion. But Donald Trump in his likely defeat might have shown America that their greatness as a nation notwithstanding, there is an ugly side of the country - its racism, sexism, and a whole array of other issues including Washington's "political correctness" that disregarded the economic miseries of millions allowing a small percentage of people to reap all the benefits of its greatness at the expense of the vast majority.
Supreme Court Justice David Souter, a Republican, had said in an interview after his retirement in 2009 that dictators like Emperor Augustus in ancient Rome appeared when people did not know where in the government they needed to go for the redress of their grievances. When that happened, there came along someone as Augustus in Rome, who told them that he alone would deliver them from all their worries and their grievances and the people in desperation turned to him. Donald Trump emerged to Americans as the character in Justice Souter's prophetic vision. America may just be lucky that Donald Trump fell way short in playing the role of Emperor Augustus. He nevertheless came close and America closer to losing the soul of its existence as the "land of the free" and "the land of the brave."
The writer is a retired Ambassador.
serajul7@gmail.com
Trump\'s statement appals both Democrats and Republicans
M. Serajul Islam concluding a two-part article from Maryland, USA | Published: October 27, 2016 00:00:00 | Updated: February 01, 2018 00:00:00
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