I can't count the number of political discussions I have had with my son that have ended with the agreement that "It's just politics," whether it concerns the lack of substantive difference between the Republican and Democratic parties, or the Corporatocracy bludgeoning it's way through self-serving international treaties, it seems that inevitably the discussion will become tiresome, and can then be mercifully ended with a sigh and an exclamation, "It's only politics." I remember a time not too long ago, though, in the early 1960's, when extremism in the defense of liberty was no vice, and when JFK green-lighted the production of a Hollywood motion picture, Seven Days In May, concerning the dangers of a military coup in this country of ours, embroiled as it was at the time in a very real game of nuclear brinksmanship.
Have we reached another such moment now?
Are the actions of 47 Republican Senators really "just politics?"
Do these actions pose any real danger to our democracy?
To the system of checks and balances we learned about in school?
Has a line been crossed?
Is there really any line at all?
If so, where is that line?
Is it time to "have a discussion?"
Given the reality of nuclear proliferation in today's world, this discussion is suddenly no longer just academic, no longer "just politics."