Viewed from the outside, America seems to have lost its political marbles.
A tycoon reality TV star who has zero government office and has assiduously offended large swathes of the electorate appears on an unstoppable path to being the Republican party candidate for president.
A septuagenarian who calls himself a socialist in a country where such terms are anathema has given a seasoned political campaigner a run for her money in the Democratic race.
In both cases the outlier candidate's chances were written off as marginal at best not that many months ago before they defied all expectations.
The rules of political gravity appear to have been upended.
What is happening feels like a wholesale rejection of an entire political class.
"We're tired of being lied to," electrician Mark Morgan told Sky News.
"While they're campaigning they promise you the world and then they turn right around and they're back in the pockets of big business and everything else and everybody's getting fed up."
Mark was at the Western Virginia Sport Show, an annual fixture for the hunting, shooting, fishing crowd in that state.
Its organiser Mark Hanger echoed his sentiments.
"We're kind of disgusted with our government. We're saying let's start all over again.
"Let's get someone who's going to come in and manage us and get us going back to what our roots are about."
Mark is so disillusioned with politics-as-usual he has decided to vote for the only candidate who is not a politician, Donald Trump.
So have many Republicans like him. And not a small number of Democrats seem tempted too.
Talk to some voters in this important swing state and you are left with the impression a revolution is under way.
Washington is seen as broken, its politicians in both parties incapable of agreement or achieving anything.
The political system is seen as gridlocked and awash with money that is buying influence over the interests of the people.
Sky joined Americans re-enacting the last rebellion against Washington DC, the US Civil War, as they camped in woods in Virginia.
"If our government doesn't decide to put itself on the right track and decide to at least meet in the middle ground between the two parties I don't think anything is going to get done," Troy Fallin, commanding officer of the 3rd Army of Virginia told Sky News.
"It's scary."
There are different reasons to be angry. On the right, voters are angry about Barack Obama and all his faults, real or imaginary.
They are worried about immigration and about the disappointing economy.
On the left, they are angry about the power of Wall Street in politics, the influence of money and the dominance of the 1% elite in American society.
But they all share concern about falling living standards, the apparent demise of the American dream and the gridlock in Washington.
America's constitution is based on the principle that politicians and parties must to some extent co-operate and make compromises.
They have to a large extent stopped doing so.
Founding father James Madison wrote the constitution in his mansion at Montpelier Virginia.
Touring the grounds we found Michael Harrold from Ohio and asked him to explain the strange state of US politics in this election.
"Historically I think we've always believed that the government is us and for us," he told us.
"And I'm not sure that's the feeling right now."
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