The US election campaign is the sharpest picture the world has yet seen of a right-wing backlash against any attempt to challenge the prevailing capitalist world order that is always supported by political and military might.
The expectation was that after the triumphal shouts of "victory" for western capitalist democracy following the fall of the Berlin Wall and the break up of the Soviet Union, there would be peace and harmony, minus a few tribal and religious skirmishes on the side.
So, assured of that outcome, Japanese-American historian Francis Fukuyama enthusiastically proclaimed that history had ended: the democratic, political-economic and social system had emerged over socialism/communism and would be the forever dominant ethic, ending all contestations.
Notwithstanding that triumph and the clear inadequacies of old-time socialist/communist ideologies and practices, there continues to be a search for a formula, a system, an ethic that could deliver equity, fairness and justice to populations whether they be in the USA, Britain–Brexit, Europe, the Arab world, Africa, China, India, Latin America and the rest of the world.
Obama, a black man, as defined in the American political culture, emerged as representative of the search for equity and justice in the USA and by extension the international community. But after eight years of very useful efforts and initiatives, and having often been blocked by the Republican-led Congress bristling against him and his objectives, there arises Donald Trump. He personifies the non-acceptance by critical and large elements of white America of an ethic of fairness, equity, justice, and a movement away from racism and the freeing of the world of the ethic of political, economic and military domination.
That is the context in which Trump, himself a stumbling, substance-less loud-mouth, needs to be understood, beyond his appearance as an alleged sexual predator and a conscienceless and rabid capitalist. He needs to be defined more clearly as representative of a bigoted and the racist portion of white America that perceives itself as being under attack from the unwashed; those of pagan beliefs attempting to take over (white) American civilisation.
It is also insufficient to merely see Hillary Clinton as an "untrustworthy" candidate, defensive of her equally predatory husband, more than her being an "extremely careless" Secretary of State. She is representative of the Democratic Party which has portrayed itself as the ideal of fairness, balance and equity, but has failed those who have preferred it as an option to freewheeling capitalism.
In this respect, Trump is absolutely right when he throws it in the faces of blacks, Hispanics, and other minorities that they have supported the Democratic Party but they remain as a group on the sidelines, in the ghettoes, faring badly in housing, in education, and in all of the other essentials which determine quality living.
What does it say about the American two-party political system throwing up two candidates lacking in the ideal? Internally, the Republican Party is convulsed about its candidate, with Speaker Paul Ryan, in good conscience unable to support Trump, but forced to do so fearing a Democratic takeover of the Congress and losing his powerful position as Speaker.
What if Trump wins? Will he give new life to the Ugly American roaming the earth attempting to whip all in line with his dictates? If he loses, the Republican Party may attempt transformation but the extreme forces which supported Trump are likely to find another flag-bearer.
If Clinton triumphs over Trump's bluster, how will the Russians react to her policies and actions in the immediate Syrian and Ukraine crises? Where will that take the international community? Will Clinton's administration be able to keep the peace with an ambitious Vladimir Putin?
Close to home, is Clinton likely to offer and achieve a renewed trading relationship with the emerging world and lowly-placed regions such as the Caribbean?
What are the candidates offering to the rest of the world? Trump is threatening China and the other major trading partners of America, and will seek to make his country once again "proud and dominant"–it is quite unlikely that China and the other new and powerful traders will play dead.
The Islamic world on present calculation numbers 1.6 billion people, 23 per cent of the world population and second only to the Christian world at 2.2 billion, 31 per cent. With Islam projected to become the leading world religion by 2050, Trump is about restrictions on their movement into the USA. How will he enforce them?
For Mexicans and other immigrant populations such as Caribbean people, Trump promises deportation and having Mexico pay to construct a wall to keep themselves out of America. This is more absurd than it is impossible to achieve.
Trump, of the extreme right, has even found cause with Putin, the Russian leader, intent on restoring power to his country through territorial occupation and acquisition and the capture of allies with his brand of dictatorship and brutal control over his population.
A Trump-Putin alliance is an explosive cocktail.
Trump has disgraced the American political system, which has been held out to the world as the ideal, claiming that it is being rigged against him.
Among other phenomena, the election campaign is showing to the world a society, leader of the world community in many respects, struggling internally for coherence, and providing complex questions to be unraveled if the international community is to achieve equity, peace and progress.
"Donald Trump is the monster that the Republican Party has built, he is their Frankenstein . . . he did not fall out of the sky." - Democratic Senator, Harry Reid.