"The Political Landscape as Interpreted By Officer Krupke"

Pop quiz.

Name three influential political minds.

Try these.

Thomas Jefferson.

Immanuel Kant.

Thomas Paine.

Here's a "get one free" for you.

Stephen Sondheim.

Well, in fairness, the team of Stephen Sondheim and Leonard Bernstein because, as the song goes, "you can't have one without the other."

More on that in a minute.

The method behind my madness of including one of musical theater's most gifted collaborative duos in the listing isn't as cryptic as you might think.

Allow me to elucidate.

(There's your word for today, kids. Look it up. No reason to risk illiteracy just because summer vacation has you on educational furlough.)

Depending on what you see, hear and/or read at any given time these last few days, we are either:

• About to suffer a cataclysmic international financial crisis due to criminally negligent posturing by the Democratic Party.
• About to suffer a cataclysmic international financial crisis due to criminally negligent posturing by the Republican Party.
• About to suffer a cataclysmic international financial crisis due to criminally negligent interference in the already criminally negligent two party process by the self proclaimed extreme right wingers in disguise who call themselves the Tea Party
• About to awake sometime between now and mid week next week to find that some half baked, half assed quick fix solution has been agreed upon just in the nick of time to prevent the aforementioned cataclysmic international financial crisis, in which case, of course, both major, and all minor, players in any and/or all parties will simultaneously take credit for their own contribution and place blame for the other guys obstinance.

Those of us who don't really understand all the nuances of living the life political will find ourselves, once again, faced with a myriad of choices regarding who to believe and how much.

Whole lotta spin going on.

And since the wonderful world of blogging has afforded "civilians" in the political wars, such as myself, the opportunity to add two cents (actually nine cents, adjusted for inflation), indulge me, if you will, as I contribute a few coins from my own perspective pocket.

The "debt ceiling" has been raised, without any serious brouhaha, dozens of times over the last fifty years, give or take.

Nobody in their right mind would be a party to allowing the United States of America to default on its debt and trigger any form of the aforementioned cataclysmic financial crisis. And while many politicians rightly deserve to be pilloried for their failure to look after our own interests as opposed to their own, a reasonable case can be made that most are in their right mind.

Some sort of "last minute save" is as inevitable as another Jesse James engagement announcement.

So the question that begs to be asked is...what's really going on here?

Here's a thought.

It's a pissing contest disguised as patriotism.

The Repubs supposedly want to save the Republic from the Dems, the Dems supposedlyb want to save the Republic from the Repubs and the Tea Party just wants to save us all from Satan's power when we were gone astray.

Nope.

It's nothing more than a very high stakes game of chicken being played out between the three gangs that pretty much spend most of their time pushing and shoving over who will rule the neighborhood.

Okay, two and a half gangs depending on how much street cred you give the Tea Party at this juncture.

Sharks.

Jets.

(Personally, I tag the Tees as the extreme right wing of the Sharks. Or Jets. Whatever)

And while all the "pin headed patriots" who make up the Congress (a right angled head nod to Bill O'Reilly, there) would love for us all to believe that they are out there fighting for us all ("us all" being defined as that most mystical of social demographics, "the American people"), I would offer you that what's really going on here is nothing more, or less, than a garden variety turf war.

It's a rumble, baby....bring your clubs, bottles and brass knucks and meet in the House Chamber at midnight.

Save the Republic, my ass.

It's Riff and his posse versus Bernardo and his posse dancing and duking it out for top dog status.

While those of us who would just like to live safe and sane and serene in the neighborhood hope that we won't get injured or killed in the melee'.

Any one of the previously mentioned thinkers would likely have volumes of opinion and perspective to offer on the societal implications of this current political watershed moment.

Steve and Lenny, on the other hand, would likely be able to sum it up in a couple of minutes of poignant music and lyric.

Because, posing and posturing aside, the end result of any rumble is inevitably the same.

Innocent people get hurt.

Lives and property get damaged, sometimes irreparably.

And neither side wins anything.

We don't need another Thomas Jefferson or Immanuel Kant to tell us that.

Sondheim and Bernstein have got it covered.