Television

Not too long ago, we reinstated our cable. My wife has an addiction to "Law and Order" and that was a hunger that must be filled. For months, I filled my eyeball-media need with Netflix - renting DVDs of TV shows, including the first season of L&O. I used Netflix to experiment with TV shows that I had heard about and wanted to try. I was actually bored by "24" - I felt the whole thing was a badly written gimmick. It was crisis for crisis' sake and the characters weren't sympathetic for me to care if they lived or died.

But I was converted bodily into a fanatic for The West Wing. Man, that's a good show. I have no idea what it's like now, in its Nth season, but the first season is masterful. They're showing the second season on Bravo (which means I need to stay up til 11 to watch it... TiVo is looking more attractive now than ever).

What I find interesting about the show is that it is a Clintonian president in a Bush Jr. world. I have this weird thought that "The West Wing" is probably George W's favorite show. Just that Cheney, or another one of Bushie's handlers, dubs the show with different dialogue. Sometimes they just add the word "not" (e.g. "... Mr. President we do NOT need to have a coherent plan for the future..."), but other times they need to just redo dialogue completely.

The West Wing conceives of the president as an extraordinary person. A Jefferson model. People of achievement. True, The West Wing is made by entertainment type people who are high most of the time; why do we need a president who is a Nobel Prize winner (in Economics, yet; like that has any practical value)?

The show reminds me of the classic Saturday Night Live sketch with Phil Hartman zt'l playing a President Reagan who was a massive dimbulb to the public and a policy whiz in private, secretly in control of the government while publicly in control of nothing save his hair. It was hilarious because it was a perfect send-up of the Republican model of president (e.g. incompetent moron with either a good resume or good appearance... if you don't believe me, explain Ford, Reagan, Bush, Bush). When Clinton took over he actually became the policy wonk that we wanted (note: Nixon was supposed to know what he was doing, too, but he was demon spawn).

Bush Jr. is a travesty. The West Wing, while fantasy, does carry the Democrat's idea of president which is an extension of their idea of a government that has value because it puts good ideas into practice. Democratic presidents and candidates have either been brilliant non-leaders or highly talented professionals (e.g. Carter, Mondale, Dukakis, Clinton, Gore). You wouldn't want these guys to run the country, but you'd like to have them as thesis advisors.