Is there a method in his madness?

Donald Trump may not win the US presidency but he has assured his place in history as an absurd choice for the GOP which literally means the Grand Old Party.

Surely it will take a miracle to bolster his sagging fortunes but one thing appears to be a self-fulfilling prophesy even at this proximate stage: He has  tectonically jogged the dormant, somewhat incoherent, platform for change. Democrat leader Bernie Sanders, once a challenger in the Primaries against Hillary up until the Convention, eventually extended support to her on an understanding for change. Nevertheless, Donald by his utterly unconventional, non aesthetic verbiage and antics, may have voted himself out of reckoning, handing the role of the force for good to Hillary Clinton. 

Trump's playful capacity for damaging his own image, his  self-destructive  behaviour pattern, his crude outbursts  as if punching like a wounded stag and his cozying up gesticulations or theatrics indicating he was enjoying himself more than perhaps the shows. Quite frankly, the Republican candidate could not replicate his outreach over the social media through connecting with the audiences of live debates.

 His brief, self-hyped evolution from a boastful persona bordering on a bumptious braggart through falling for a touch of glory by adopting George Washington's famous phrase 'making America great' - again to his being an underdog presents a persona of self-contradictions. But underlying it all is a vengeful deliberateness about everything he says or does. Thus, he comes through as someone capable of mischievous interpretations of developments not going his way.

Now he is propagating a victimhood image. You may call it grapes are sour mode; and so as not to let down his die-hard supporters, he is preparing them for a doomsday scenario. A latest Time magazine cover story titled "Total Meltdown" shows his fragile unkempt hair sliding about. Its story line reads: "How trump plans to win even if he loses the election." His rants against rigged elections right from a 'defective' electoral roll through allegedly opaque nomination process to suspect stitched–up election result reverberate every now and then.

Time  magazine says that at West Palm Beach, Florida, Trump proclaimed a "unified field theory of the situation, producing a vast plot against him overseen by a group of faceless global elites, named media organisations, bankers, elements of federal government and even his own party leadership."

So he is all set not to accept the election result if it goes against him, even though his falling numbers are acknowledged by his own camp. In the most unlikely event it comes to that, this would be a serious departure from the unbroken tradition of peaceful transfer of power in the US democracy.

My hunch is that Trump, or for that matter, the Republican party is projecting a certain martyr complex about themselves to ride on sympathy votes for a good tally of 100 senatorial and 400 House of Representative seats up for grabs,  simultaneously with the presidential election.

The stakes are crucial for the Democrats when you ruminate over the Obama-initiated legislations that were routinely scuttled. Even bipartisanship, a hallmark of US political system, got bogged down unceremoniously.

Hillary Clinton, for obvious reasons, is directing her energy towards garnering support for Democrat nominees for senators and members of the House of Representatives. The division in the Republican party centred on Trump may work to the advantage of Hillary - that is how Democrats assess their prospects to turn the table in both Houses on their adversaries. But the opposite may hold true: Make up for a presidential election debacle by holding up in the Houses.

Obama for his part is powering Hillary's campaign to muster strong in the Senate and the House of Representatives.

Usually you don't philosophise on a candidate for US presidential election who in the eye of the world has lowered the bar of expectation. Yet, some quotes may spice up the analysis - I hope. Trump may like to know how sages have  shown reverence to the word - absurd. Just for a consolation, may be!

Albert Camus said, "Happiness and the absurd are two sons of the same earth. They are inseparable."

Here is what Samuel Beckett had to say succinctly: "I can't go on, I will go on."

 To end with Albert Einstein: "If at first the idea is not absurd, then there is no hope for it."

The writer is a contributor of The Daily Star.

Email: shahhusainimam@gmail.com