Donald Trump – a man who parrots simplistic solutions for complex problems – can make a simple choice. He should properly apologise for his appalling and aggressive misogyny, captured in a 2005 recording of his lewd comments about women and released at the weekend. The disclosure has confirmed, yet again, he is unsuitable for representative office, and compounded his already flawed campaign for the US presidency.
But Mr Trump makes up for a lack of sensibility with stubbornness. On Monday (Australian time), in the second debate against Hillary Clinton, he blithely sought to dismiss concerns over his display of vile sexism. "It's one of those things," was part of his rambling justification. He admitted he was not proud of the remarks, made while wearing a microphone ahead of a television appearance, but dismissed them as mere "locker room" banter.
![Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton square off in their second presidential debate, at Washington University in St Louis.](/web/20161231101138im_/http://www.theage.com.au/content/dam/images/g/r/y/q/9/d/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gryzrd.png/1476157163231.jpg)
This from the man who bragged in the video recording that his celebrity allows him to "just start kissing" women, and then, as he crudely put it, "grab them by the pussy. You can do anything."
That's the limp standard to which Mr Trump has dragged this campaign. Far from braggadocio, he displayed the type of demeaning attitude towards women that sits on a spectrum which finds an excuse for sexual abuse and domestic violence. Mr Trump seeks to score political points by questioning Mrs Clinton's judgment, but he should consider his own. Language matters. Leaders ought to encourage equality and respect.
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"If this were just about one video," Mrs Clinton observed during the debate, maybe, just maybe, his excuses would be understandable. But the video most clearly identifies character traits in Mr Trump that have already been on prominent display. It goes far beyond his evident contempt for decency, yet is only his latest outrage, not the first.
"He has also targeted immigrants, African Americans, Latinos, people with disabilities, Muslims, and others," Mrs Clinton went on to explain during the debate. "This is who Donald Trump is." The question she rightly posed for Americans to answer at the ballot box is whether he reflects the country.
Republican leaders are abandoning Mr Trump, and rightly so. He threatens to drag the once-proud party of Abraham Lincoln and Dwight Eisenhower into the abyss. In the wake of the video scandal, former Republican presidential candidate John McCain refused to offer even conditional support for Mr Trump's candidacy. Former secretary of state Condoleezza Rice went further and called for him to withdraw.
Even from Australia, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull forwent a usual hesitancy to comment on US politics and described Mr Trump's remarks as "loathsome".
Yet Mr Trump is correct in his characterisation of the US as "a very divided nation". An opinion poll published by the Politico website shortly after the video aired found just 12 per cent of Republican voters overall – and 13 per cent of female Republicans – wanted him to drop out of the race, whereas 70 per cent of Democrats agreed he should end his campaign.
Mr Trump will persist, attempting to cast himself as a victim of a vast media conspiracy. Whether it is by claiming a faulty microphone or accusing debate moderators of bias, he always finds an excuse to distract from his inconsistency. He sought to muddy views of his own evident sexism by drawing a tenuous link to the past behaviour of Bill Clinton, blaming Mrs Clinton. He even threatened his opponent with a judicial investigation over her private email server.
So Mr Trump will keep slinging mud and spitting bile, right up to election day. Americans then have a simple job, to say enough, Mr Trump. Enough.