For some reason, I allowed myself to be sucked into the void that is The West Wing. Over the past three days, I have, among other things, watched all of the first two seasons. There is some witty writing, yes, and it can be funny as hell from time to time. It is, however, so heavy-handed, so sentimental, that it is in the end pernicious. It could be one of the most depraved and dangerous series I’ve ever seen.
Allow me to focus on only one arc within the two seasons I have witnessed. Turns out that the President has a certain type of MS. He was diagnosed seven years before we catch up with him at the start of the series. Only a handful of people know about his condition, which is slowly revealed over several episodes in these two seasons. When it is disclosed that he lied about it for several years, especially while on the campaign for the presidency, his entire administration, and legacy, is threatened with shipwreck.
Here’s where we have a problem. Before I get to that, let’s look at what’s good about this. First, it is a plausible story. Second, it is pretty well written, and the acting is good. The problem, dear reader, is this. At no point are we, the viewers, ever encouraged to consider that this paragon of Presidents, this PhD in economics with a Nobel Prize, should resign and accept the disgrace due his actions. He has, for several years, perpetrated a conspiracy, all so he can attain and hold the office of the President. He, and his people, are convinced that they are somehow different, and while we see a few of these staffers react with shock and anger upon hearing the news, they fall in line and help save this man they have pledged to serve.
This is all given to us in the most cloying way. We are meant to identify with this President, feel the emotional trauma he and his must endure as they finally reveal it to the public. Reveal it they do, in a carefully staged manner, after taking a poll to gauge how the public might react to such news. While all this is happening, the reality of their deception is made clearer by scenes with the White House Counsel, who insists that both the President and the First Lady grapple with at least the deep and broad legal morass they have created for themselves. Such realism as this one character offers, however, is undercut by the viewer's carefully cultivated loyalty to the central characters, a loyalty that is driven by ideological as well as emotional investments. So, again, as the seriousness of the crisis becomes more and more apparent; as the senior staff takes to meeting in the basement to plot strategy; as the press is manipulated; we never hear that most basic question: should not the President resign?
Consider - in the story they’ve written, this man has committed fraud on a massive scale. His wife, a distinguished physician and now also the First Lady, has colluded with him in this fraud, and in the doing has violated several provisions in the code of ethics that orders her profession to the common good. They have taken care with the secret, restricting knowledge of the man’s condition to a small circle of people necessary to care for him and advance his interests. We are shown that they have never coerced anyone or asked them to lie, but it is also understood that this man commands such personal loyalty that there is almost no chance that anyone ever would reveal his secret. So, he and his wife have cast a veil of secrecy over the existence of a disease so grave that it could, though it need not, threaten the very sanity of the man who would be President. He is special, you see; the country needs him. Were he to reveal his condition, it’s likely that, fair or unfair, he would lose. He wants to be President, he needs to be President, and all those around him believe in him. This carries into the point in the story where the secret is revealed to all, and the Administration closes ranks to protect Their Man (and themselves).
That this would all be grounds for impeachment and then an indictment is mentioned from time to time, but, at least in what I’ve seen so far, it is never fully explored. Instead, we have the emotional and ideological identification with this Powerful Man, who is at the center of a constellation of truly interesting characters we come to care for, and in that fog of sentiment and pandering we are subtly and not so subtly by turns moved to hope that the President not only survives this crisis but thrives in office. Once I left the glow of my computer screen and looked out the window onto the still turning world, I shook off this fog and started to think once again. A President that lied so egregiously, all so he could attain that office, would offend me morally, for such a President would ill-deserve the office. The fraud itself would render all his moral and political power moot. I would hope to see him speedily impeached and convicted and thus removed from office. I’m also certain that we could find him a minimum security prison somewhere with excellent medical facilities.
So, the series seems to my ear to be a propaganda piece for the Magic Presidency. In it, the President is all powerful, except when stymied by idiot congressmen who refuse to bend to his will, or those legal and moral niceties that might impede his path to glory. Sure he lied, committed several felonies and colluded in fraud in fact, but we can forgive him because he is a brilliant reformer, a compassionate man of principle, and a lover of all things Constitutional. The West Wing is dangerous and depraved, it seems to me, because it is really a story about the Cult of the President, wrapped in a soap opera about a group of quirky eternal university students.
This is all given to us in the most cloying way. We are meant to identify with this President, feel the emotional trauma he and his must endure as they finally reveal it to the public. Reveal it they do, in a carefully staged manner, after taking a poll to gauge how the public might react to such news. While all this is happening, the reality of their deception is made clearer by scenes with the White House Counsel, who insists that both the President and the First Lady grapple with at least the deep and broad legal morass they have created for themselves. Such realism as this one character offers, however, is undercut by the viewer's carefully cultivated loyalty to the central characters, a loyalty that is driven by ideological as well as emotional investments. So, again, as the seriousness of the crisis becomes more and more apparent; as the senior staff takes to meeting in the basement to plot strategy; as the press is manipulated; we never hear that most basic question: should not the President resign?
Consider - in the story they’ve written, this man has committed fraud on a massive scale. His wife, a distinguished physician and now also the First Lady, has colluded with him in this fraud, and in the doing has violated several provisions in the code of ethics that orders her profession to the common good. They have taken care with the secret, restricting knowledge of the man’s condition to a small circle of people necessary to care for him and advance his interests. We are shown that they have never coerced anyone or asked them to lie, but it is also understood that this man commands such personal loyalty that there is almost no chance that anyone ever would reveal his secret. So, he and his wife have cast a veil of secrecy over the existence of a disease so grave that it could, though it need not, threaten the very sanity of the man who would be President. He is special, you see; the country needs him. Were he to reveal his condition, it’s likely that, fair or unfair, he would lose. He wants to be President, he needs to be President, and all those around him believe in him. This carries into the point in the story where the secret is revealed to all, and the Administration closes ranks to protect Their Man (and themselves).
That this would all be grounds for impeachment and then an indictment is mentioned from time to time, but, at least in what I’ve seen so far, it is never fully explored. Instead, we have the emotional and ideological identification with this Powerful Man, who is at the center of a constellation of truly interesting characters we come to care for, and in that fog of sentiment and pandering we are subtly and not so subtly by turns moved to hope that the President not only survives this crisis but thrives in office. Once I left the glow of my computer screen and looked out the window onto the still turning world, I shook off this fog and started to think once again. A President that lied so egregiously, all so he could attain that office, would offend me morally, for such a President would ill-deserve the office. The fraud itself would render all his moral and political power moot. I would hope to see him speedily impeached and convicted and thus removed from office. I’m also certain that we could find him a minimum security prison somewhere with excellent medical facilities.
So, the series seems to my ear to be a propaganda piece for the Magic Presidency. In it, the President is all powerful, except when stymied by idiot congressmen who refuse to bend to his will, or those legal and moral niceties that might impede his path to glory. Sure he lied, committed several felonies and colluded in fraud in fact, but we can forgive him because he is a brilliant reformer, a compassionate man of principle, and a lover of all things Constitutional. The West Wing is dangerous and depraved, it seems to me, because it is really a story about the Cult of the President, wrapped in a soap opera about a group of quirky eternal university students.
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