Welcome to the future.
It is just like today, only different.
Oops, it changed again. Never mind.
The above pretty much describes how I felt Tuesday night watching the blue political wave sweep across the country.
I spent several days leading up to the election in both Texas and Iowa, where seismic shifts occurred on election night. These two dependably red states turned a shocking shade of blue as voters spurned Republicans and voted Democratic.
There has been enormous dissatisfaction across the country with the Trump administration, particularly over high prices for gasoline and housing. Much of the frustration was tied to the Iran War.
Trump claimed he was the man who could lower prices and keep us out of war. Once upon a time, he did just that. Then he didn’t. He badly miscalculated. Voters have memories.
You have to wonder whether Secretary of War Pete Hegseth will be fired in the wake of all this. The real instigator of the Iran war may well have been Israel's Bibi Netanyahu, who pushed Trump into it.
This blue wave might never have happened if Trump had allowed Israel to fight Iran over these past nine months while keeping the United States out of it.
Instead of concentrating on race and gender issues, Trump and his administration handed Democrats the best campaign strategy imaginable: the economy.
Remember during Bill Clinton's presidential campaign when his advisor James Carville repeatedly said, "It's the economy, stupid"?
Ironically, the national economy is great right now. What is not is “affordability.” That was the GOP’s death knell.
History repeated itself this past week. Republicans are now in deep trouble for the next two years.
Here In Wyoming
In Wyoming, the moderates reigned supreme. Or, as the Freedom Caucus folks would say, the Faux Republicans (RINOs) prevailed.
Governor-elect Eric Barlow and the new Superintendent of Public Instruction Steve Harshman have long been viewed with suspicion by the most conservative elements of the Republican Party. Now they are in control. I think both men are terrific leaders of the state.
Robert Short is an outstanding choice for the new Secretary of State.
State Treasurer Curt Meier and State Auditor Kristi Racines are doing such good jobs that nobody even bothered to run against them.
With the super-conservative Freedom Caucus state representatives defeated in the primary, Barlow will have a much more congenial Legislature to work with. And, as a former Speaker of the House, he knows his way around that body.
His resume reminds me of President Lyndon Johnson, who became president after serving as both vice president and a congressional leader. Johnson was a master at getting things done. I can see Barlow having a similarly productive time in office.
With this legislature and his fellow elected officials, Barlow has a chance for a real golden age of progress during the next four years. It’s going to be a great time for Wyoming.
History Repeats Itself
Six years ago, right about this time, when the country was electing Joe Biden president, it was easy for me to throw up my hands and admit that voters get the country they deserve.
This year, after Tuesday's results, it was not so easy to do that.
Voters have gone crazy, in my opinion. We may have lost our country. It is going to be very, very hard to get it back.
Elections matter. In recent years, that has become increasingly obvious. After Biden's disastrous four-year term, it took Donald Trump just 24 months to begin getting the country back on track. He still has two more years as president, but the road ahead is going to be much harder.
One thing stands out to me: Senate Majority Leader John Thune has been a disaster. I hope Wyoming's Sen. John Barrasso becomes the new leader of the Senate Republicans.
Thune should be replaced. What a do-nothing imposter of a leader.
Welcome To The Future
And yet, maybe none of this will matter.
With artificial intelligence and robots advancing at breathtaking speed, we are moving into some potentially dangerous and frightening times. Or maybe the pilots of all those UFOs will step in and turn this ship around!
We could be seeing Universal Basic Income within the next five to ten years as millions of jobs disappear. This will become a huge issue championed by Democrats, who will argue that there simply are not enough jobs to go around.
In reality, it will be hard to argue with them. The facts could show robots and artificial intelligence continuing to eliminate jobs at an astonishing rate.
Plus, we have generations of workers who believe in WHYDFML, which stands for “what have you done for me lately?”
The next two years will be painful for Republicans and probably for the country as a whole. But in time, hopefully, common sense will prevail.
The future is so unpredictable. It is rarely what we anticipated.
But today, with last Tuesday's national political earthquake combined with the incredible pace of technological change, I see the future being a very strange place indeed.
Bill can be reached at Bill@CowboyStateDaily.com
