Once again, it’s politics time here in good old Wyoming.

It seems it’s always politics time here in the land of the free. We barely finish washing the noise of one election out of our ears before the next campaign begins, and disgruntled losers, prospective candidates and loud-mouthed commentators resume shouting at us.

Listening to all this politicking is unpleasant, and digesting it is even harder, but that’s the way it is in a society that chooses its leaders by popular election and has so much money lying around that people can spend millions promoting their favorite politicians. But, as I once said in this column, living in this nation makes us all politicians because politics is the way we steer our government — or at least try to steer it — in the direction we want it to go.

So, since it’s election time, I feel it is necessary to write about politics, even though it makes me one of those loud-mouthed commentators.

The politicking between elections usually isn’t so active in Wyoming as it was this time. This year is different because of the ongoing dispute among conservatives as to just what being a conservative is.

A bunch of voters who claim that they are the real conservatives have pronounced themselves to be the epitome of Republican-ness. They have declared that anyone who doesn’t believe exactly as they do is not a conservative, is not fit to be a Republican, and is, at best an independent. At worst, such a person is a Democrat in disguise, which makes him, in fact, a socialist.

The targets of these super-conservatives include Gov. Matt Mead, whom they declare has made a mess of things and is leading the state of Wyoming straight to perdition. Joining him for the proverbial ride in a handbasket are several state legislators.

This group, which the purists like to refer to as a “good old boys” club, participated with the governor in raising the gas tax, voting to join other states in adopting a set of education goals the purists believe is a federal takeover of our schools, and attempting to reduce the power of Superintendent of Public Instruction Cindy Hill.

Now, I’m not one of Gov. Mead’s supporters, and I will vote for his Democratic opponent Tuesday. But the only mess I see in Wyoming is within the Republican Party, and if the governor caused it, his opponents certainly helped him do so.

There may well be some difficult times coming to Wyoming, but I don’t blame the governor for them. I do oppose the attempt to take over all federal property in the state and some other actions Mead supports, but I don’t see things falling apart because of him.

Sure, I’ve had to pay a bit more for gas, but I prefer driving on good highways, and am aware that federal highway money is probably going to dry up. I figure I’m going to pay for pothole-less pavement one way or another, and I’m willing to do so with a tax.

As for the school issues, the fear-mongering of conservatives over the Common Core Standards is way off base. The federal government did not create the standards, and many conservatives once supported them, turning against them only after President Obama said he supported them. After all, pure conservatives can’t agree with anything the president likes.

What’s funny is that a lot of liberals also oppose the Common Core, so the Republican purifiers are disobeying their own no-agreeing-with-liberals rule.

The pure conservatives want to develop a new set of standards that fit Wyoming better. That makes me wonder just how the knowledge and skills required to be well prepared for life differ in Wyoming from those required in other states?

Do the laws of physics, such as gravity, work differently in Powell than they do in Toledo or Washington, D.C.? Is there a different law of supply and demand in Wyoming, and do we use different grammar than they do in Colorado or Wisconsin?

I figure students in Wyoming will join the big wide world just as students in every other state do. The base knowledge and skills that will help them succeed at the University of Notre Dame or Cal Tech will help them do well at Northwest College or the University of Wyoming. When they go to work, they will use the same tools and mechanical skills in Tennessee or, for that matter, in Scotland or Japan that they need in Wyoming.

So what’s wrong with adopting a list of standards common to all states? I can’t think of a thing.

Then there’s the Cindy Hill question and the notion that the citizens’ votes were taken away from them when her powers were diminished by the Legislature. I think voters answered that in the primary election when they ended Hill’s attempt to replace Mead.

Voters also dumped the candidate Hill favored as her replacement at the Department of Education. Apparently, the voters weren’t all that upset at the good old boys club about taking their votes away.

In short, it seems to me that the state of Wyoming is doing all right. There are rough spots, such as our students’ performance in school, and we need economic development, especially in many of our rural areas. Mead certainly didn’t cause the problems, though and I don’t think his Republican opponents have better ideas for resolving them.

Finding solutions to our problems requires that we judge possible actions, not by checking whether they are conservative or liberal, but by whether they will achieve the intended purpose. Let’s put all that energy being used to determine who is the most conservative into finding practical ways to advance Wyoming and its people.

Ideological purity should have a much lower priority.