The sound you hear is America’s Democrats uncorking the champagne. As much as the insane part of me wants Republican Donald Trump to be the next U.S. president, I think the man has blown his chance.

Although his country’s democracy allows him to do practically anything to win the nomination for the presidential race, attacking a rival by tweeting an unflattering photo of his wife is more than just hitting below the belt.

Not every jaw has dropped, however. “He’s very human and down to earth,” enthuses a female friend of mine. “Isn’t that what men do when they don’t need to worry about political correctness?”

That’s not a bad observation, actually. As far as Donald Trump is concerned, standard criteria can’t be applied. Every time he does or says something politically unorthodox, bordering on lunacy or scooting right past it, his ratings shoot through the roof. I mean, boasting about your own wife’s looks while disparaging those of your rival’s may make you a bad guy in a movie, but it might win you a presidential election in real life.

Maybe Trump is warming up for Hillary Clinton, who, barring a shock of epic proportions, is set to win the Democratic nomination. Running against someone who stands a great chance of becoming America’s first female president won’t be easy, but Trump must be relishing the challenge. His tweet could be a subtle message to Hillary: “This is what I can do to an ordinary woman who poses no threat to me whatever, so imagine what I can do to you.”

But as I said at the very beginning, the Republican front-runner has shot himself in the foot. Going after a woman who had done nothing to him or the country was a big risk, even for a totally unconventional politician like him.

His tweet was so potentially suicidal that Ted Cruz was struggling to hide his smile when he went on air to defend his wife. “If you want a character debate, you’d better stick with me,” Trump’s Republican rival said, curiously using a famous quote from Hollywood blockbuster “The American President.”

I said in an earlier column that Trump had gone beyond entertaining. Whether that’s true or not, the only things now standing between him and the secret codes to fire weapons of mass destruction are Ted Cruz and Hillary Clinton. (It’s a bit unfair to assume that men with ungentlemanly attitudes toward women are more likely to fire nuclear missiles, but in politics anything is possible.)

So, who should be more politically stressed out — Americans or Thais? The former have to live with Trump’s tweets day in and day out and the possibility of him leading America on the issue of Islam, while the latter are pondering the fundamental effects of a newly completed draft constitution.

Just in case you hadn’t heard, the draft spells out the rules on who can be Thailand’s next political leader. It empowers an appointed Senate to give the House of Representatives the green light to select a prime minister who does not come from an election.

The whole draft is complicated since it represents an attempt to strike a compromise between what the coup-makers want, and the drafters’ need to be seen as sufficiently “liberal.” An appointed Senate, undemocratic, has a say on whether an “outsider” can be prime minister, which is also undemocratic. But the Senate doesn’t have a say on which outsider can be the prime minister, which is somewhat less undemocratic.

If you are dismayed, you can take consolation from the fact that it could have been a lot worse. The coup-makers had reportedly demanded something even more undemocratic. They initially wanted the appointed Senate to be able to censure a popularly elected government. (This was among several eye-popping proposals that prompted a response of “Hey, hold your horses!” from charter drafters.)

As you can see, we Thais are grappling with issues that American kids probably don’t have to learn about any more. Their parents, to borrow another quote from “The American President,” are coping with “advanced citizenship.” In other words, while Thais are debating how bad life might be without democracy, many of our American counterparts are dreading the possibility of a full-blown democracy spawning a leader who many critics deem a catalyst for World War III.

So, when you make your choice in the charter referendum, most likely in August, and have to decide whether an elected Senate is good or bad and whether allowing a nonelected person to take the country’s helm is beneficial or counterproductive, spare a thought for America’s voters.

They have gone far beyond fundamental issues of democracy, like the pros and cons of “appointed” versus “elected” political officeholders. Theirs is a more progressive problem. Donald Trump, if he somehow survives the tweeting debacle, is a by-product of democracy Americans don’t know whether to laugh or cry about.

By Tulsathit Taptim

Tulsathit Taptim is a former editor-in-chief of the Nation, which is published in Thailand. — Ed.

(The Nation/Asia News Network)