It is less than two months now until election day. Of course, many votes will be cast before that, so the process has, to some small extent, already begun. I am always excited and awed by national US elections, especially Presidential ones. For one who follows public affairs it nearly always seems to be the most important election in memory. This year is just may be that that is so.

I have followed American politics closely, not to say compulsively, for decades now and I remember nothing to match this mess. There was intra party strife(1964), occasional calls for revolution (’60’s, early ’70’s), and serious political readjustments and changes of assumptions(’80’s & ’90’s). There have been scandals before and seriously inappropriate things said by candidates and/or their supporters. But I think it has been nothing like this.

Consider–The Democrats, the more “normal” of the two parties for the moment, at least, nearly went to the public with a man in his ’80’s who appeared to be succumbing to the frailties of age. If you have followed me at all recently, you know that I think Joe has been a good President and might continue. It’s the “might” part that is frightening.

After the disastrous June debate the President dug in his heels, but the overwhelming feeling within the party that he might end up not able to govern and even more likely would lose the election and not get the chance took its toll. So for the first time in US History a leading party set aside the candidate that was in all-but-name the official nominee. He himself picked his VP as his successor and the party with considerable(but not, I think inappropriate)haste moved to ratify his choice. She, in turn, quickly named a not very well known but highly respected midwestern Governor as her running mate.

At the same time, Donald Trump, the most bizarre President in history and the most unusual candidate too, is back as the GOP choice. He is running with a mostly inexperienced OH Senator who wrote one good book(I liked it), then, after some wandering in the Appalachian wilderness of his experience and his culture, decided he belonged with the Trump side of the Republicans and accepted Trump’s offer to be his running mate(I wonder if one or both of them is now regretful about this.)

We did not expect this to be relaxing or very edifying and It wasn’t. But most of us did not expect the extremes it has already gotten to. Unbelievably, two attempts on Trump’s life have already been made. There are nuts out there on both(or all or whatever you choose)sides and they have weapons of lethal power available to them. The idea of real political violence is frightening both in its immediate incidence and in what it might say about our country’s state of mind. But it is most disturbing in what it might portend for the US future, a subject I do not wish to pursue very much now.

But look at the rhetoric on each side. The Democrats’ is fairly normal and not too much inspired. I agree mostly with what they say. Sometimes it could be said more imaginatively. Kamala Harris is a compelling presence on stage and/or before a mic. It’s conceivable she could win in large part on that. But the Dems had better be careful.

Despite his occasional butchering of the language, and his frequent violence to logic, Donald Trump is a moving speaker to many. I am not among those moved by him, but clearly many are. And he does have a sort of swamp fox vigor in some of his speaking. And he has the trick of saying things that are absolutely absurd and getting away with it, at least to a very considerable degree.

The most recent and the most obvious of this Trump-fantasia world is the now too well known statement about Springfield, a small-medium sized city in the Western part of my home state. We all expect Trump to try hard to profit from the border mess and to make ridiculous statements about it(“they’re all criminals” etc), but we were astonished at the immigrant/ animal cannibalism statement. Now where did he get that? Well, actually I think he got it from an obscure(once)posting on the internet, but never mind. You would think that such absurdities would lose him enough votes to guarantee he will be defeated. Maybe they will, but don’t bet more on that than you can afford to lose.

Oh, yes, and now you may look forward to a lot of debate about having a debate. I think another one would be a good thing, but I won’t lean on anyone too heavily for that. It is obvious that Trump’s political instinct–functioning here–is telling him not to do it. That instinct may just be right. But if his campaign seems to be imploding he may regret not having the chancer to pull himself back from the brink of defeat.

In the meantime, the overall debate, which happens daily on the campaign trail, goes on. But where? Indications now are that it could take a turn toward foreign policy. Most of Trump’s people are uninterested in foreign affairs and, to tell the truth, the same may be true of the Dems. But with serious wars in both The Russian-Ukrainian mess and in the Mideast it just could become an issue, Particularly Israel may force the issue upon the US politicians by it’s recent apparent advances which have give them a way of turning smart phones into weapons.

So fasten those belts and pay attention. This could be a rough ride and end in a rougher landing for the American political system. In any events, it’s different.