2016 Oct 20^th

Donald Trump did not help his cause last night. There will be debates about who won the debate but the important aim of the contest is about attracting new voters and keeping the voters you have. If that is the aim, I’m afraid Trump missed it by a mile. He needs women voters and his antics aren’t attracting any more of them than the devotees he has.

Trump claimed that he would “wait and see” before accepting the results of the election. This didn’t help him except to solidify his base which is quite solid enough already. He has been claiming for some time that the election is rigged and now many of his supporters are joining that chorus. Just this morning columnist Cal Thomas chimed in on that theme. Of course Trump has the right to challenge the result of the election and he has that right even if it isn’t close. But if he challenges the result of a landslide loss he will reinforce the image of himself as a thin-skinned, sore loser. He has very few Republican supporters in high places now, and this rhetoric threatens the loss of even their support. The graceful submission to the will of the people is an important election tradition and Trump seems to be preparing the electorate for his refusal to acknowledge it.

He certainly played the alpha male by winning the who can interrupt whom more often. I don’t have the figures but he was way ahead of Clinton on that count. He nicely played the role of the overbearing male. Trump polished off his debate performance by calling Hillary Clinton “such a nasty woman.” Did he believe that would attract more women voters? Of course not and he didn’t care. He was having fun, posturing and mugging for the cameras. Later he made a joke of his earlier remark about perhaps contesting the election by saying that he would absolutely abide by the election results (pause…) if he wins. That brought done the house and that’s why he said it.

He is very good at pleasing and getting applause from his fans at these rallies. That is the reason he will lose this election: he is addicted to the cheers from his fans and the things he has to say to get those cheers often alienate everyone else.

Another woman came forward today to tell her story of being grabbed by Trump and when she resisted he said, “Don’t you know who I am?” This now makes ten women with plausible stories of Trump’s lechery. It won’t make any difference. His devoted followers have heard it before and they either don’t care or they believe all of these women are lying, put up to this by the Clintons They believe in Trump and they will distort any new information so that belief can be maintained. Psychologists call it dissonance reduction.

In three weeks this mess will be over….I hope!