The presidential debates between Democratic nominee Hillary Rodham Clinton and Republican nominee Donald Trump rolled off on Monday night, at Hofstra University in Hempstead, New York, with the staging of the first of three scheduled contests.

Typically these are expensive media events geared at pitting the contenders together in face-to-face match-ups for 90 minutes to answer questions on local and international issues and on subject areas including the economy, national security, foreign policy, and any other pressing current issues in the country at the time.

Ideally, these debates are intended to check each candidate’s grasp of these important subject issues, their composure, bearing, and temperament under the glare of the cameras for the duration.

Monday night’s debate, though, was in my opinion a little more than that as for the first time in the country’s 240-year history as an independent country, and 95 years since it granted women the right to vote, it was the first time that the country was required to acknowledge that women — who currently make up more than 51 per cent of the American population — were capable enough to challenge for the reins of not just political power, but even more, the office of president of the USA.

In the circumstances, therefore, if we are to accept that the purpose of the debate was to provide a demonstration of the readiness of either of these candidates for the proverbial highest political office in the free world, then it has to be accepted that this farcical production did not result in a win by Hillary Clinton but a tragic loss by America and its pretence at being the beacon of the democratic process to the rest of the world.

Politics in America is a frontier that has been dominated by males since 1776, with female participation largely reserved for the cellars of the process. Today, women make up less than 15 per cent of Senate or Congressional representatives, and from a Republican political standpoint, women have very little political value beyond casting a ballot at election time or to provide the legwork role for the men who designed and ostensibly run the process.

It is from this perspective that Hillary Rodham Clinton’s participation has been viewed by most American males, and sadly by too many women too far indoctrinated into accepting the existing status quo. The consequence of this has been that the adjudication of this presidential election by those responsible for providing coverage has been riddled with double standards. Clinton is deemed as untrustworthy, but there is no requirement on those that level the accusation to provide definitive reasons in support of their claim.

Trump, on the other hand, has enough skeletons to raise a cemetery, enough slime in his past to provide plots that would keep screenwriters busy for years, yet he is given free passes. What is worse is the issue of his non-disclosure of his tax returns — an issue that should have long disqualified him from participation in the process, but has received very little pressure from a media only interested in gutting Clinton’s run for no other reason than the fact of her gender.

There is very little desire to acknowledge the fact that in the entire political history of the country, no other candidate has had the level of preparation that she has had for this role — and this assessment does not even take into account her academic background.

For Hillary Clinton to be even asked to share a political, worse, a debate stage with Donald Trump is an absolute insult to every American and an insult to the image of America in the eyes of her allies across the globe. Trump’s candidacy is an insult to the tradition of America in much the same way that it insults the country’s voting population. That the Republican political establishment has allowed the circus that he developed to engulf their organisation is a demonstration of the extent to which the Republican Party has become out of touch with the realities of America.

The consequence of this is that Trump, in true ‘Hitler-esque’ style, has forged a campaign by appealing to the worst of America; its bigotry, its racist underbelly, and its separatist doctrine of redundant “American exceptionalism”. With an ego that is only challenged by the chasm of his own vacuousness, Trump’s presence on the debate stage was insulting to the intelligent viewer and his continued presence on the political stage, an embarrassment to the politics of this country.

Beyond that, Trump’s presence on that debate stage at Hofstra University was the perpetration of a fraud. And by embracing his candidacy, the Republican Party has perpetuated an even bigger fraud on the American people. If the Republicans really believe that Trump is presidential material then, as a political organisation, they are in serious trouble.

In a contest designed to test capacity and grasp by presenting factual, evidence-based responses, Trump knew nothing. He said nothing of substance and only succeeded in not looking at his watch for the entire 105 minutes.

It is without question that Hillary Rodham Clinton dominated the proceedings but, in my opinion, she did not win the debate as there was none. What transpired wasn’t a debate but a farce and America lost big time!

Richard Hugh Blackford is a self-taught artist, writer and social commentator. He shares his time between Coral Springs, Florida, and Kingston, Jamaica. yardabraawd.com Send comments to the Observer orrichardhblackford@gmail.com.