During my years teaching political science at the Air Force Academy, I often talked with students about the U.S. Supreme Court case considered by many experts to be the single worst case decision ever, that concerning Dred Scott. As I’m sure you, dear readers, recall from your own education, Scott was a ruling by the SCOTUS that, when announced on March 6, 1857, declared, as per then-Chief Justice Roger B. Taney, enslaved people were property with no rights as humans. That decision set the bar for terrible and wrong decisions quite high. The recent SCOTUS decision on immunity for former President Donald Trump isn’t as offensive and horrible as Scott, but it sure comes close.

As I’ve noted before, with the three dishonest Trump appointees to the nation’s highest court (dishonest in that they all stated during confirmation Roe was “settled law,” which they then, in a quite activist manner, overturned completely. Precedent means nothing to this court), the U.S. Supreme Court has become an entirely political branch of government.

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Repeated news stories assert current Chief Justice John Roberts is concerned about how history will consider his time in office. The “Roberts Court” is now even more likely to be remembered as a partisan court bending to the will of the political miscreant running the GOP today, despite felony convictions. Roberts is in grave danger of being remembered as a hack who was complicit in decisions designed to allow the reelection of a demagogue. History will not be kind.

But I’m not going to talk about that.

I’m also not going to talk about another important news story from a few days ago, wherein a certain former “America’s mayor,”  Rudy Giuliani, has been disbarred; that is to say had his license to practice law suspended effective immediately in his home state of New York. Why you may ask? Well, in his over-the-top efforts to help a certain failed former president steal an election, Giuliani told numerous lies about our legal and election system “designed to create distrust of the elective system of our country in the minds of the citizens and to destroy their confidence in the legitimacy of our government.” Oh, and he faced two more indictments in Arizona and Georgia for crimes dealing with vote counting. On top of that, he still owes $148 million to two Georgia election workers whom he defamed. It is interesting how many of that former president’s people end up either denouncing him or facing criminal charges along with him. Perhaps being a felon is the new GOP norm?

But I’m not going to talk about that either.

What I am going to talk about is another Colorado Politics story by ace reporter Ernest Luning who looked for the lessons of Colorado’s recent primary election. Luning finds five significant takeaways, and it is worth your time to read the whole article. I want to comment on just a couple of his thoughts:

The story notes that, at least in Colorado, common sense and, well, moderation, seem to have mostly carried the day in the primary. Dems and GOPers, for the most part, rejected those at the extreme ends of their party’s political spectrum. Congressional voters here in El Paso County rejected the crazy Trumpism of GOP state party Chairman Dave Williams, instead handing an overwhelming victory to Jeff Crank (whom I know a bit from our own congressional campaigns in 2008). Jeff has wanted to serve in U.S. Congress for many years, and absent a (hoped for) remarkable night for the Democratic candidate, River Gassen (a smart actual scientist with political acumen), Crank may well finally reach his goal, where I predict he will be a moderate, or rather whatever far-right position seems to be “moderate” in today’s GOP. But around the state, the extreme candidates mostly failed, and that is a good thing.

The story also notes the good people of Colorado are happy with mail-in ballots, despite various GOPers trying to claim somehow voting by mail is not secure. The U.S. postal service is, in spite of all the bad jokes, stunningly efficient and effective. Only a small fraction of 1% of mail is ever lost, and for the cost of a stamp, the P.O. will take your letter anywhere in the U.S. and deliver it, regardless of how far off or how remote. The mail is a wonder, and now I’ll step down from my soapbox.

The story also reports on the one massive exception to Colorado reasonableness: our national embarrassment U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert, who skipped town when she thought she might well lose her reelection efforts to — gasp — a Democrat! When the quite reasonable (by modern GOP standards) Ken Buck became so disgusted and fed up with the GOP nonsense he quit, Boebert saw a chance to grab her carpetbag and pop over to CD-4, a far redder district than CD-3.

She won the primary there, which is actually a good thing, given that I’d much rather have a loud-mouthed ineffective fool, if I have to have a GOPer, than someone like Buck, who was a quiet workhorse trying to get things done. Boebert will continue to be a blowhard, but she won’t get much done, which is good for the nation.

And if, after all that, you need a brief moment of zen, may I suggest you visit a site mentioned in the New York Times where you can make check marks in one million boxes, along with thousands of other folks in need of distraction. You go click, and I’ll meet you back here next week. Click here.

Stay tuned…

Hal Bidlack is a retired professor of political science and a retired Air Force lieutenant colonel who taught more than 17 years at the U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs.