The world is chock full of matters that pass my occasionally meager understanding. Donald Trump’s standing in the current public opinion polls is one of them.

With that I must make an admission: I do not understand the thinking of Americans who can justify their backing of a man with the kind of morality, the record of lying, the examples of fraudulent behavior that Trump continues to exhibit.

Family members who say they value my opinion on such matters keep asking me why Trump continues to hold this standing. I have no answer. I do not understand it. I cannot fathom anyone backing a candidate for president with so many personal and moral failures as this individual.

He speaks of his “populism.” He is no more of a populist than, say, King Louis XVI. He talks about caring for the little guy. When has anyone seen him showing up unannounced to work in a soup kitchen? He talked about losing all those friends in the 9/11 attacks. Yet … he never attended a single funeral or memorial service for anyone who died on that horrific day.

His many moral failures are too many to mention here. You know what they are.

And yet, here he is set to capture the Republican Party presidential nomination for the third consecutive election cycle. He won the first time, lost the second go-round and well might win the 2024 election.

Is this nation really so gullible, so prone to this man’s phony promises to elect him a second time to an office about which he knows absolutely nothing?

I cannot even begin to grasp what might lie ahead for this great land if our worst nightmare comes true.