Many of the story lines of tv series "Madam Secretary" seem to have no connection with reality. Thus it comes as quite a shock when two story lines seem to have been influenced by reality, or possibly the story lines have influenced reality.
A few weeks ago, there was an episode (S4E4) which had in its background a government shutdown. As a result, most of the State Department employees were sent on unpaid leave. The same thing is happening today in real life.
Even more disturbing was the episode that I saw yesterday - S4E12, aka 'Sound and fury': this episode has the president acting more like a dictator, ignoring the advice of his National Security team and firing the Defense Secretary who refused to carry out an immoral order. The highlight of this was the statement which I paraphrase as "I am the strongest man in the world. This is what I want and you will do it". Eventually the cabinet held what might be termed a mutiny (mutiny is for enlisted personnel, barratry is for offices), insisting that the president stand down until his medical condition is evaluated. It transpires that the president has a growth which is pressing down on his frontal cortex, causing his personality and decision making functions to change. A short course of anti-steroids and he's back to normal! (Although he will have to undergo surgery to remove the growth.)
Does this sound familiar - except for the absence of a growth (the real-life US president had a medical check about a week ago)?
Fortunately I am not an American, so I can view these events in an objective manner.
I wonder whether real-life Americans talk about the constitution as much as their fictional counterparts do.
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