Talk politics.

The conductor of the German train checked my ticket. When he recognized my accent, he asked which state I was from. When I told him California, he mentioned Gavin Newsom, and said he had been touring through Europe giving talks. I was not aware of that, and told him.

He changed the subject, and in halting English, tried to express his thoughts about the recently started Iran war.

"I think some countries, they are not suited to democracy like us. Maybe dictatorship works better for them."

I responded slowly, trying to keep my own words simple. "Well, I see it this way. I think in Iran, there is a certain kind of land: Most of it is desert, and very hard to live on. Not very profitable. And then some of it, is oil fields. Those pieces of land are very, very profitable, as long as someone tightly controls them. So the land itself makes a situation where it’s easy for a dictatorship to keep control. Just grab the oil fields and hold onto them, and then start passing out money to the people in the desert. Enough to keep them happy, so they don’t try and take over. My hope is that the people of Iran will get enough economic power to fight their own government. But the government has done another thing: It also controls the religion. If the people are upset, they just say, 'It’s your religious enemies that are causing all your problems. The Jews, the Christians. They want your government to change because they want to destroy your religion.' That’s a very hard position get out of. I think the people would accept democracy but they have to separate religion from government. And I think what’s really making it hard for them is the land."

The conductor immediately replied, "But why drop bombs on them? It’s just a waste. It’s hurting all of us."

"I agree with you. It’s a waste. Trump thought the Iranians were going to rise up. He’s an idiot. All the people who tried to rise up, got murdered by the government months ago. He’s trying to make the regime surrender, but for them it’s a holy war. They won’t stop until they’re dead. In the meantime we waste all this money and time. It’s stupid."

"If I was an American, I’d be a Democrat."

"Good!"

"JD Vance will probably run for president next."

"Probably, but he’s no Trump. I think he’ll lose."

"I heard Kamala might try running again."

"Yeah, I’m worried about that too. She lost once already. She might be less popular to Democrats than JD Vance is to Republicans…"

"If Newsom runs, I would vote for him. But he has a lot of repairing to do of the relationship between the US and Europe. Lots."

"Definitely. He’ll get my vote."

He smiled wished me a great trip, and moved to the next passenger...