“If he had just gone home, gone to sleep, relaxed, he would have been a hero. But he made a deal with the Devil. She’s the Devil. He made a deal with the Devil. It’s true.” — Donald Trump on Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton, August 2, 2016

On Monday night my wife and I figured that we would watch 30 minutes of the first United States presidential debate between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump.

Up until now the Trump campaign had been so utterly offensive that the only thing worth staying up to for would be to see if Trump would moderate his conduct or not.

About 30 minutes into the debate, our eyes were glued to the screen, our jaws were dropped to the floor and our necks were sore from shaking our heads in disbelief.

Instead of trying to prove that he could be level-headed, Trump stayed on the same abrasive, dishonest, divisive course that he has been on all this time.

His primary objective was to repeat his key fear points:

• Americans have lost thousands of jobs to cheaper, predatory jurisdictions

• Foreigners on American soil are taking jobs from Americans

• The tax system is destroying jobs

• America’s allies are not doing and paying enough to fight terrorism

• Hillary Clinton is a corrupt politician who helped to create and support the growth of terrorism

What Trump did not prepare for is someone who wasn’t intimidated by his bullying debate style.

He did not prepare for someone who would question his record, his alternative strategy and his vision.

He had become far too accustomed to preaching to the choir at Republican Party rallies.

So when pressed to explain and justify his plans, he came up terribly short on details on how his vision would work. With nothing of substance to add, Trump opted to hurl the debate downhill.

His misogynistic views on women were reinforced as he defended his comments about Miss World and Rosie O’Donnell.

When that wasn’t enough, he tried to patronise Clinton’s stamina. When questioned about the failure to disclose his taxes, he brushed that aside while claiming that not paying certain federal taxes makes him smart.

When faced with a claim of racism, his only defence was that he was not the only one accused, and that he settled the claim without giving an admission of guilt.

When candidates were questioned about police violence against African-Americans, Trump sidestepped that issue entirely by rambling on about how certain minority neighbourhoods are extremely violent and need more aggressive law and order. He even suggested that it was time to reintroduce “stop and frisk”, which is a practice that has been ruled unconstitutional. As if the above wasn’t bad enough, Trump could not logically explain why he continued to question President Barack Obama’s place of birth until recently.

Whereas Clinton resolutely stated that the entire “birther” conspiracy theory is inherently racist, Trump attempted to excuse it by claiming that the Clintons started it and that people have now lost interest in it.

By the end of the debate, Trump was agitated to the point that he claimed to have spared Clinton some embarrassment by not saying certain things about her husband, Bill Clinton, the former president.

It was almost as if he thought it was gracious and praiseworthy for him not to sling even more mud at, or lie about, his opponent. It was at this point that I was most reminded of the parallels to Bermuda’s political climate over the past four years. The Republican Party’s core strategy has been to motivate its base through demagoguery.

This entails demonising the opponent through the use of religious iconography, conspiracy theories, lies, innuendo and flagrant bigotry. It requires the use of willing participants in social media, radio, television and the press.

Most importantly, it requires people who can speak with the kind of conviction and bravado that could motivate the troops to action.

What they seem to have missed is that one of those persons would want to be president, and that the very voters that they sought to mobilise would support that candidate because they had been conditioned to embrace demagoguery.

The problem for America, and Bermuda, is that the while this strategy may get people out to vote, things fall apart when that party leader is held accountable for the things they say.

At some point that leader’s political party has to be able to demonstrate that it can lead a country and not just motivate people to protest or vote.

To be perfectly honest, this sounds all too familiar to me.

• To reach out to Bryant Trew, e-mail bryanttrew@mac.com