Remember, without Sen. Mitch McConnell’s determined stance during the last Obama year, this same Garland would now be a justice soiling the Supreme Court.

This tawdry paternal protection bid is just one of a number of conspiracies that have surfaced in the political septic field of our contemporary political system. The contrived Russian collusion hoax jumps to mind, but there are others.

In fact, I would argue that our country is now in the grip of a whole network of coincidental conspiracies that are poisoning and even paralyzing our politics, just as voters are beginning to ponder the choice of another commander in chief.

Please let it be a fresh new one.

We have Democrats and the Deep State consumed by their seven-year revenge cycle over the outrage of Donald Trump’s shocking upset of the woman who calls others deplorable.

We have social and news media colluding with Biden officials to censor negative news about the Big Guy and the revelatory, X-rated, self-incriminating contents of his sleazy son’s laptop.

We have news media consistently ignoring and playing down glaring examples of Joe Biden’s worsening mental and physical condition.

And we have news media covering the hell out of every possible detail of Trump’s legal cases (He’s en route to the courthouse now, He’s just arrived at the courthouse…).

All while conveniently ignoring the competing campaigns of his coherent challengers, which might otherwise capture the GOP nomination and threaten a Biden Democrat ticket.

These younger challengers are gasping for media air now to transmit their messages far beyond the immediate gathered crowds. This allows the MSM to chronicle their “struggles,” as if the same media has nothing to do with creating those struggles from their intentional inattention.

Call it accidental censorship that just happens to fit the liberal agenda.

Whatever your premature preference for GOP presidential nominee, this media bias is dangerous for the nation. We need a good, thorough look at these wannabes because of the lesson of 2020.

That’s when one candidate hid in his basement, effectively masking evidence of his mounting frailties.

And when media successfully counted on widespread antipathy toward Trump to elect the oldest president ever with an empty vice-presidential partner so glaringly incompetent that she’s a giggling guarantee against any Biden impeachment.

Since then, Trump has reminded me of one of those second-tier gods in the Greek tragedies I had to read in high school. He gets so tied up in his own vanities, ambitions, and petty jealousies that he dooms himself to defeat. Maybe you’d call that a conspiracy against self.

I agreed with an overwhelming number of Trump promises that he actually delivered in policies: Energy independence. Rebuilding the military, honoring police. Building a real southern border wall. Crushing ISIS. Income tax cuts. Deregulation. Work ethic. Appointing conservative judges and justices. And more.

His wife, too, performed with grace and style, absent the personal ambitions and agenda we now witness.

I also disagreed with much of Trump’s behavior: The petty slights. Name-calling. Unnecessary squabbles from perpetually punching back, even when it was punching down. Lack of verbal discipline that created many of his own problems. That was the turmoil that eventually repelled enough voters.

Not surprising, perhaps, for a highly successful reality TV host, Trump is a master media manipulator. No doubt about it. He covets their attention. They love his loving it and the accompanying access that elevates them, too.

And Trump’s savvy unpredictabilities guarantee media attention, even when that’s to his own detriment. Like those narcissistic Greek demi-gods who couldn’t help themselves despite their powers.

It’s a form of convenient collusion, Trump and the media. Everything about the man draws readers and viewers, which serves both sides. Have you noticed the widespread media personnel and economic troubles that did not happen coincidentally since Donald Trump left office?

What this relationship does, however, is skew the political process for the rest of us. It’s fine with Trump if one or two really good potential presidents get lost in his celebrity dust.

He could glide to victory once again with a plurality, as I detailed here.

It’s ironic perhaps that Trump’s current media dominance of the GOP primary race is tied to his mounting legal problems. Former Gov. Larry Hogan, a Trump critic, bemoaned it this way:

Nobody can get any traction or attention because all we’re talking about is Donald Trump’s legal troubles.

Democrats’ zealous and overreaching pursuit of Trump revenge through the courts and media’s eager coverage have handed the former president news dominance, just like the old days.

As a result, the legal aspects of the alleged Trump violations get lost, and his early primary poll numbers actually have grown. Even among some who oppose him.

Would you call this accidental collusion?

These unprecedented legal cases against a former president of an opposing party, and likely others to come, are clearly overreaching.

And they are in stark contrast to Democrat prosecutors letting Hillary Clinton skate over her blatant email national security violations and now plotting to help Hunter Biden dodge serious consequences for his gun and tax crimes.

(Did you know AG Garland’s Justice Department agreed in Hunter’s plea deal that he’d be protected “in perpetuity” against prosecution for hiding, not reporting, and misreporting millions of dollars in foreign earnings from peddling his family name? That provision, now in legal limbo thanks to the judge, was designed to keep any future, presumably Republican, prosecutor from reopening the case.)

Historically, American election campaigns have performed like partisan and diligent Border Collies, herding voters into pens labeled Us and Them. That’s the way you aggregate votes and maintain them until voting.

Barack Obama perfected the perpetual campaign. It has contributed to the continuous partisan divide that now permeates the U.S. political scene and feeds the perceived need for longer campaigns, which also, not coincidentally, enable perpetual fundraising.

John Kennedy announced his campaign 11 months before the 1960 election. Bill Clinton 13 months before. George W. Bush 16 months out. Obama 21. Elizabeth Warren 23. Trump the first time 17 months, this time 24.

The word bipartisan is now tainted. Negotiation across the aisle means you’re a RINO or DINO. Social media is an imperfect measure, but “discussion” there has largely deteriorated to “You’re full of it” or worse.

Democrats this cycle announced no primary debates for Joe Biden, understandably given his mental condition. Trump says he may well skip the GOP one on Aug. 23.

So, the ways voters have of learning about candidates have shrunk to their own willingness to research online and in media, which focuses on conflict and has largely failed to provide honest examination of at least the major candidates and their positions, unless they’re in a shouting match with Trump.

Trump’s former UN Ambassador, Nikki Haley, had some strong, valid warnings about China the other day, her policies, and Biden’s apathy toward its aggressions from hacking U.S. government servers to its spy balloons. Few people heard about Haley’s ideas, however, because of yet another Trump indictment.

On a campaign swing through South Carolina last week, Gov. Ron DeSantis, veteran of a Navy Seal Team deployed in Iraq, wanted to outline his military and defense plans. Half the questions at his press conference sought reaction to Trump news.

Media has a set of powerful constitutional protections. They enable the opportunity to chase consumers, advertisers, and profits.

But they also carry important responsibilities. By focusing coverage so heavily on and around Trump, they distort public perceptions and, therefore, our election process. Accidentally or willfully, the motive is evil either way.

We are enduring today the results of this same pattern from the 2020 race. It makes for a haphazard, dangerous, even precarious way to go about selecting the next commander in chief.