Who Won The Third Debate?

Last night, at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump met in the third and final presidential debate before the general election on November 8th. Donald Trump won. Here’s why: In less than three weeks’ time, Hillary Clinton will be elected president in the biggest landslide victory since 1984, when Ronald Reagan won every state except Minnesota and the District of Columbia. Soon thereafter, Trump will dispute the final results and claim that the election was rigged against him, and he will be right. Because Trump purposefully rigged the election against himself. Though Lena Dunham comes in at a close second, no one has done more to ensure the presidency of Hillary Clinton than Donald J. Trump. He systematically eliminated every other potential Republican candidate, all of whom would have posed a greater threat to Hillary. He appealed to the basest tenets of conservatism–racism, fascism, misogyny –destroying any chance his party had at courting moderate voters. Worst of all, he reduced our most consequential democratic action to a fait accompli, a non-choice between the status quo and oblivion. This election ultimately accomplished two things. One, it made Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton richer and more powerful than they’ve ever been before. Two, it divided the rest of us against one another in ways too profound to express. You’re a smart person. Who do you think benefits from that arrangement?