Bartlet4America News Archive

Maybe voters long for choices like this

by Anita Clark
Wisconsin State Journal

Television viewers may have enjoyed the "debate" on NBC's "The West Wing" because it presented an idealized version of politics, a UW-Madison professor suggests.

"I think this reflects a longing for idealized, high-level, principled politics that may never have existed in fact," said Stephen Lucas, a professor of communication arts.

He didn't see the program, but notes that shows and movies about the presidency often present strong leaders.

"They always seem to reflect a longing for a president who has real character and gumption," Lucas said.

Ratings climbed for "The West Wing" as people tuned in for the live "debate" between actors portraying Republican and Democratic candidates for president.

A national poll by MSNBC.com/Zogby International found that the Republican, played by Alan Alda, gained support despite the earlier lead of the Democrat, played by Jimmy Smits.

The show was scripted, but performed live, and early in the joint appearance the make-believe Republican proposed dropping the rules. The make-believe Democrat readily agreed.

We can only wish for the same in real life, said Kathy Cramer Walsh, an assistant professor of political science at UW-Madison.

"I can't imagine a candidate ever agreeing to that because it is so risky," she said.

Walsh, who watched the program, has a theory about why the Republican might have gained momentum.

"West Wing" viewers are likely to be liberals and Democrats, since it's a story about the administration of Democratic President Josiah Bartlet, she said, and they would naturally favor the Democratic character.

But then they hear a Republican position being articulated by the popular Alda, listen more carefully and find some merit in it, she suggested.

"So often, we tune out the message because of the people saying it," she said. "It's a commentary on the lack of energy we put into listening in our politics these days."

One young Democrat, Brian Shactman, a junior political science major at UW-Madison, liked the Democrat in the first place and thought he was "the clear winner" of the debate.

A young Republican, perhaps surprisingly, agreed that the Democrat "won" the debate. But that's because the script was written that way, said Robert Thelen, a senior in business management at UW-Madison.

"It's very liberal and it's definitely slanted toward the liberals," he said. "They portray the Republicans as heartless and the Democrats as having the good ideas."

Anyway, "it is just a show. To take it as more than that is to take it out of context," Thelen said.