As one other terrifyingly important presidential election nears, it’s exhausting to not fantasize about how various things may very well be. Think about, for example, having a president who put deeply held values above the pressures of their largest donors. Think about one who was capable of really pay attention and be taught when confronted with points they didn’t perceive quite than adhere to no matter stance occurred to be essentially the most politically handy on the time. Think about, even, a president who impressed you, who made you are feeling a glow of patriotism, skeptical as you may be of the idea. Briefly, think about Josiah Edward “Jed” Bartlet, president of the US as envisioned by Aaron Sorkin and dropped at life by Martin Sheen throughout seven seasons of the award-winning and critically acclaimed NBC collection “The West Wing.”
Two of the present’s forged members, Melissa Fitzgerald (who performed Carol Fitzpatrick, assistant to the White Home press secretary) and Mary McCormack (who performed deputy nationwide safety advisor Kate Harper), definitely nonetheless consider within the present’s sticking energy in addition to its total constructive framing of politics. They’ve written a e book about it that’s plainly geared towards current followers of the present: “What’s Subsequent: A Backstage Move to the West Wing, Its Forged and Crew, and Its Enduring Legacy of Service.”
Look, it’s true: Every now and then, I make sizzling chocolate in my “Bartlet for America” mug and sip it wistfully, imagining a world by which we’d had a President Bartlet as an alternative of a second President Bush, maybe adopted by a President Santos — the character performed by Jimmy Smits who had sweeping, really impressed schooling reform plans. It’s a stunning dream, a White Home that’s extra “West Wing” and fewer “Veep,” practical and almost scandal-free, earnestly devoted to bettering the lives of on a regular basis People by doing the gradual but important work of coverage change.
Sure, I do know that is extraordinarily naive; sure, I’m conscious that Bartlet was problematic in loads of methods, as have been his staffers; and sure, I do know that “The West Wing” was, in some ways, a liberal fever dream that purchased into American exceptionalism and the beliefs of patriotism. However that’s simply it: The present was a fantasy, one which gestured at an concept of how issues may very well be, however that wasn’t attempting to assert that this was how issues actually have been. Sorkin himself insisted that “in the beginning, if not solely, that is leisure. ‘The West Wing’ isn’t meant to be good for you. … Our duty is to captivate you for nevertheless lengthy we’ve requested to your consideration.”
And entertain us it did, throughout greater than 150 episodes, some extra memorable than others, however all together with not less than one rousing monologue that made this viewer, not less than, consider in the opportunity of a authorities that basically works, or that basically tries to work, or that basically needs to work. It helps that I first watched bits of it as a tween, lengthy earlier than I’d moved to the States, when my journeys to California have been strictly household visits throughout which I used to be liked and spoiled by my grandparents and aunts with as a lot frozen yogurt as I wished, unrestricted TV time throughout which I loved extra channels than I knew what to do with and endlessly fascinating commercials for toys I’d by no means get, and better of all, bookstores so massive I may get misplaced in them. It felt like a extra harmless time.
However, after all, it wasn’t. “The West Wing” was airing as George W. Bush took workplace following an in depth and contested election. It was on TV when 9/11 occurred, because the Patriot Act was signed, and because the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq have been launched. The present supplied a rosy different, which appealed particularly to a sure revenue bracket; its largest chunk of viewers, in keeping with a 2001 examine, have been incomes greater than $70,000 a 12 months — or, in right now’s cash, greater than $120,000. Largely sheltered from systemic injustices contributing to and attributable to poverty, prosperous folks skilled fewer of our authorities’s shortcomings and possibly discovered the present’s imaginative and prescient extra believable than it was.
As a (quite sheepish) devotee of the present, I purchased into it too, particularly the primary couple of occasions I watched it entrance to again, in my late teenagers and early 20s. It managed to make the American political course of — which I discovered deeply baffling, having by no means realized the way it labored at school — thrilling. Partially, I’m positive, it was the pace of the quippy dialogue, which Sorkin is legendary for, in addition to the best way the present was shot, its lengthy walk-and-talk scenes lending a way of urgency to issues of dry coverage. The humor was useful too, and generally academic. I’ll always remember the Huge Block of Cheese Day episode throughout which deputy communications director Sam Seaborn is required to meet with a ufologist — and Press Secretary C.J. Cregg and Deputy Chief of Workers Josh Lyman be taught (together with the remainder of us) that the maps we’ve all grown up with are each imperialistic and albeit simply unsuitable.
However as humorous and galvanizing (usually on the similar time, as within the good two-parter “20 Hours in America”) because the present might be, there are obtrusive points in it. Once I rewatched it extra not too long ago, I used to be extremely disturbed, for example, by the dynamic between Lyman and his assistant, Donna Moss. What was framed as a cute “will they/received’t they” relationship between boss and devoted worker now learn to me as not solely extraordinarily unprofessional however even downright abusive, with Donna bearing the brunt of Josh’s mood tantrums and placing up with being always belittled by him. However it’s greater than the interpersonal dynamics; the present’s sometimes over-the-top optimism and honest perception in the US as the best nation on Earth — to not point out its very white casting and informal but constant sexism — has, talking anecdotally, made it really feel cringey to many leftists of my era.
The outdated critiques in regards to the present’s idealism nonetheless ring true. Cynicism about and frustration with the gradual gears of presidency have possible at all times existed all through the left-right spectrum. Now, with social media including a second-by-second commentary on an already speedy 24-hour information cycle, these sentiments really feel a lot louder and extra seen.
The authors of “What’s Subsequent” don’t handle the methods the present has aged poorly. They’re as an alternative relentless in pointing to its positives, and to be truthful, when it was initially airing there was no different TV present depicting authorities capabilities, and so the insurance policies that “The West Wing” explored have been possible eye-opening to a lot of its viewers. An episode within the first season, for example, features a compelling argument for monetary reparations for the descendants of enslaved Black folks, an idea as outdated as abolition however which loads of the present’s viewers may need by no means encountered earlier than.
This explicit instance isn’t talked about within the e book, although, which focuses as an alternative on the broad concept of service and lionizes the present’s forged members for his or her numerous social and political activism. Many have labored to help veterans and remedy courts, which emphasize rehabilitation for people with substance use issues. “What’s Subsequent” is a cheerleading textual content, a enjoyable and breezy learn that doesn’t delve into any cringe elements or difficulties on set.
However “The West Wing” would, like virtually any piece of putting up with media, solely endure from an insistence that it’s excellent. The present is a messy piece of very entertaining — and sometimes academic — tv, stuffed with extraordinarily proficient actors giving unimaginable performances, nevertheless it’s not a street map for actuality, nor ought to or not it’s.
After President Biden’s debate debacle this summer time, the present’s creator, Sorkin, penned a weird op-ed suggesting that the Democrats nominate Mitt Romney, a average Republican, for president, a technique to poach sufficient conservative voters to maintain former President Trump from regaining energy. However when Biden stepped out of the race, Sorkin rapidly took again the suggestion. His op-ed was, relying on whom you requested, a irritating or entertaining thought experiment, nevertheless it ought to by no means have been seen as actual recommendation for the true world. Like “The West Wing,” it was a break from actuality.
Ilana Masad is a books and tradition critic and creator of “All My Mom’s Lovers.”