Story highlights Peniel Joseph: Campaign wounds inflicted on our democracy will take long time to heal

Trump's talk amplifies coalition of extremists, conspiracy theorists and disgruntled, he says

Peniel Joseph is the Barbara Jordan Chair in Political Values and Ethics and the founding director of the Center for the Study of Race and Democracy at the LBJ School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas at Austin, where he is also a professor of history. He is the author of several books, most recently "Stokely: A Life." The views expressed here are his own.

(CNN) Wednesday night's third and final presidential debate took place against an unprecedented backdrop of controversy over the Republican nominee's history of alleged sexual assault and harassment of women, his more recent unsubstantiated allegation of widespread voter fraud and his suggestion the election is being rigged in favor of his opponent.

The debate, moderated by Chris Wallace of Fox News, started with a substantive question about the Supreme Court, with Hillary Clinton suggesting as president she would choose justices who protect marriage equality and the rights of the poor.

Trump attacked Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg for criticizing his candidacy and presented the election as a referendum on the protection of the Second Amendment. He promised to appoint "pro-life," Second Amendment justices, equating the wishes of the Founding Fathers with the ideological positions of right-wing conservatives.

Throughout the night Trump often presented himself as a caricature of the right, vowing to appoint Supreme Court judges who would reverse Roe v. Wade and accusing Clinton of supporting ripping babies "out of the womb in the ninth month on the final day" in rhetoric designed to arouse red-meat conservatives everywhere.

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