I had a friend many years ago who, after waking up drunk in an unfamiliar place, said that he was suffering from what he called “vuja day”—déjà vu turned inside out, or a feeling he had never experienced before. As with many drunks, he thought he was being funnier than he was. Because the sense he was having is one with which we are all familiar. In fact, there is a real French term for it, an opposite of déjà vu. It is jamais vu.
Washington is an odd place this week before the inauguration of Donald Trump as president. It is gliding toward the big day as though everything about it and Trump are familiar, almost comfortable. But the reality is that for many reasons the city and much of the country is actually suffering from a severe and potentially dangerous case of jamais vu.
That is, we’re heading into territory that is very much unlike anything we have ever seen before.