Something strange has been happening.  Perhaps it is the consequence of too much information? All those stories ricocheting here and there, willy-nilly, they spawn a numbness in our brains? Pretty soon, you get to the point where you are prepared to believe almost anything just so you are not so confused that you forget to put down your cell phone and eat lunch (the most important meal of the day, if you are to believe what you read).

I mean, really. If someone had told me ten years ago that a former one-term President of the United States of America would be indicted in four jurisdictions on over ninety felony charges, among them a conspiracy to unlawfully overturn a national election, charges for which he is almost certain to be convicted on some counts, and that such a person would still be nominated as the next presidential candidate of one of the two major parties in the USA and possibly elected once again as President of the United States of America…well…I guess I would have had to ask them if they had stopped taking their medication. 

But that is exactly where we are.  Who’d a thunk it?  Not me.  I thought Americans had more sense than that.  I guess they don’t.  But it’s just a guess.

I have to say that this development is a disappointment to me.  And my living in a foreign land does not make things any easier for me.  Let’s face it.  It’s embarrassing.  How do I explain to my neighbors the continued ardor of so many Americans for Donald John Trump?  It is practically like saying you understand how quantum mechanics works.  How something can be a particle and at the same time not be a particle or be entangled with another particle that is twenty galaxies away if not completely on the other side of the universe.

When they ask me about him, I often get the feeling that I would be better off on the other side of the universe.  What on earth can I tell them?

“Can’t they just pick another candidate?” they ask.  “Any other candidate?”

I scratch my head, look down at the pavement, fidget a little nervously, and say, “I wish they would.  I think it would save everybody a lot of trouble if they did that.”

But my neighbors aren’t so easily put off. They don’t mean to be rude.  They just want to understand what is going on.  They probably figure that, since I am an American, I might have some insight they are not hearing or seeing on their European news feed.

“But so many Americans can’t possibly believe that Trump is the only one who can run the country.  We get it that Americans do not have to pick the best candidate for the job. Hardly any country manages to do that, but America has proven itself very capable of getting on with mediocre people in charge.”

Then they start to name examples of past Presidents to prove their point. Some neighbors name Republican Presidents; other neighbors name Democratic Presidents.  I shrug and try to think of an excuse to change the subject or go home.

“Why don’t they just move on and pick somebody who is not under indictment? What’s going to happen if he is convicted and elected? Is that even legal?”

Then I have to tell them that I don’t know what will happen but that it probably is legal for the President of the United States of American to run the country from his prison cell.  That’s when they start shaking their heads. 

So, like I said, something strange is going on.

And he might become a convicted felon before the week is out.