Ol' Liz Cheney will be tossed into the bone yard of defunct politicians on August 16.  Some, maybe much, will be said about the relevance of Liz's demise as to November's national midterm election.  But Wyoming isn't (ahem) typical of the rest of the USA.  Wish that it were...but other factors are involved.  Nonetheless, Democrats are scurrying about seeking safe havens, with appropriate futility.

They're leaning on the abortion issue, but the fact that every state can make its own rules on the subject kind of defuses the issue as a rallying cry.  Oh, dear!

Operating beneath this process is a seldom mentioned power possessed by Mr. Donald J. Trump: he somehow manages to bring out the worst in his enemies.  Perhaps it's because they are so fearful of what he can still do to their precious status quo that they just throw all caution to the wind.

Cheney's demise is akin to what has happened to Representative Adam Schiff.  Once just a hack member of the Metro L.A. Democrat machine, his last name is now being used on the radio as an FCC-compliant alternative word for fecal matter.

Regardless of its lack of broad significance, the Wyoming primary will still mark a turning point in this overly political year.  For starters, the Jan. 6 committee will morph into the Lame Duck committee.  Its only other Republican, Adam Kinzinger (Ill.), already announced his retirement last year (which explains a lot).  Also, expectations of a major rightward shift in Congress will be further substantiated, especially as polling becomes more accurate moving toward November 8.

Neither Trump nor Biden is on this year's ballot, but they both loom large over the impending contests.  Trump is serving as a litmus for the sorting out of devoted public servants from the smarmy swamp rats desperately clinging to their careers.  Biden, by his increasingly feeble performance, is causing even greater attention to be focused on the true ability, or lack thereof, of the other pols.

Lurking in the background to all of this is a widespread weariness of endless political theater.  Meanwhile, we are suffering from a profound lack of competent governance.  Burdensome taxes and inflating prices are taking a serious toll on our standard of living.  Swarms of vagrants are despoiling our towns and cities.  Rampant lawlessness is further damaging the general quality of life.  I could go on and on, but you already know the drill.

Meanwhile, back to ol' Liz.  Why would a Wyoming people's representative go so far out of her way to enrage her constituents?  According to Byron York, not only is Liz not of Wyoming, but she's not even from Wyoming.  Born in Wisconsin, she has spent most of her life on the Virginia side of the Metro D.C. swamp.  In spite of her surname's pedigree, she has no background in ranching, mining, or living by your wits.  In some ways, she's a textbook example of the pervasive defect in American politics: reliance on the superficial rather than the substantive.

Public-sector malfeasance has become the new normal.  As this is being written, the major Pacific port of Oakland has been shut down for the last week because the villains in Sacramento have outlawed independent owner-operator truckers from picking up and delivering freight containers  — unless they incorporate or surrender to the Teamsters union and become employees.  There can be little doubt that generous campaign donations were involved.

Again, a turning point may well be nigh.  The trick is in the follow-through — properly exploiting the opportunity.  Those reading this blog are obviously implored to register their electoral preferences come November.  And I regret being compelled to remind us of the old curse: may you live in interesting times.

Image via Pixabay.