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May 25, 2006
'West Wing' was an antidote to political cynicism
by Margie Peterson
The Morning Call
In an early episode of my dearly departed ''The West Wing,'' an activist at a luncheon to raise money for congressional candidates tells the crowd, ''It's a great country. Every two years we get to overthrow the government.''
Given the power of incumbency, that rebel spirit lies dormant in most elections, especially in Pennsylvania. In a May 4 op-ed piece in The Morning Call, political analysts G. Terry Madonna and Michael Young wrote that state legislative incumbents are more likely to retire, die in office or leave due to legal problems than be defeated at the polls.
If the May 16 p rimary wasn't quite a revolution, it was at least a Boston Tea Party. Seventeen incumbents lost their seats, including Rep. Paul Semmel, R-Lehigh, and Senate leaders Robert Jubelirer, R-Blair, and David Brightbill, R-Lebanon. The lesson: You can't pass an illegal pay raise at 2 a.m. without waking voters.
But even when real government was depressing, I escaped political cynicism once a week by turning on NBC's ''The West Wing.'' The show came to an end last week. I'm still in mourning.
At its core, ''West Wing'' was a love letter to American democracy. It showed people on both sides of the political aisle wheeling and dealing and spinning and arguing. Taking principled stands and swallowing painful compromises. Facing the hard choices of governing. In one episode, secretary Donna Moss begs presidential aide Sam Seaborn not to reveal to a friend seeking a pardon for her dead grandfather that he was a Soviet spy.
''It was people pushing paper around 50 years ago, what does it matter?'' she asks.
Seaborn responds: ''It was high treason, and it mattered a great deal. This country is an idea and one that has lit the world for two centuries, and treason against that idea is not just a crime against the living. This ground holds the graves of the people who died for it. Who gave what Lincoln called 'the last full measure of devotion,' of fidelity.''
Granted, liberals and moderates usually ruled the day. But the arguments on all sides were more intelligent and thought-provoking than most of the real life talking heads' shouting matches that pass for national discourse. In one episode, presidential aide Toby Ziegler rattles off the benefits of free trade and gives a lesson in speech writing, all in about 30 seconds. He says:
''Food is cheaper. Clothes are cheaper. Steel is cheaper. Cars are cheaper. Phone service is cheaper. You feel me building a rhythm here? That's because I'm a speech writer, I know how to make a point. It lowers prices and raises income. Do you see what I did with 'lowers' and 'raises' there? It's called the science of listener attention. We did repetition, we did floating opposites, and here comes the one that's not like the others. Ready? Free trade stops wars … and we figure out how to fix the rest.''
''West Wing'' could be a great teaching tool for years to come. Lehigh Valley high schools could air an episode each week and use 20 minutes of social studies class to get students debating the issues it raises, even relatively arcane ones. The series' creator, Aaron Sorkin, wrote the most entertaining show about the filibuster since Frank Capra's ''Mr. Smith Goes to Washington.''
The writing was just that good. In a special episode on terrorists soon after the Sept. 11 attacks, deputy chief of staff Josh Lyman tells a group of high school students, ''Remember pluralism. You want to get these people? I mean really reach in and kill 'em where they live? Keep accepting more than one idea. Makes 'em absolutely crazy.''
I wish I'd written that. But it's back to political reality — made more interesting by the overthrow of arrogance in the May 16 primary. I'll have to take my inspiration from that.
Posted by Jo at May 25, 2006 09:50 AM