I’m on my last batch of DVD’s from NetFlix , having re-watched in the past couple of years the first 6 seasons. I’m really sad to see it go. Much of that sadness is that there is precious little remaining on TV worth watching. Even the post-Sorkin West Wing episodes, widely reviewed as “not near as good” are nevertheless miles above and beyond the rest of televesion. A very distant second for me are shows like Lost. That’s not counting the occasional good non-fictional piece , usually from PBS, like the aforementioned Frontline piece on Cheney and Tenet.

I couldn’t help but notice in the past year, since my initiation into Radical Orthodoxy ideas, that The West Wing certainly lays it on thick with the near-worship of “Democracy”. I also noticed similar reactions in myself to other “patriotic” pictures such as in National Treasure, where the Nicolas Cage character shudders with awe at the realization that he is standing in the room where the Declaration of Independence was signed. Historical, yes. Important , yes, but such “awe” seems a bit misplaced. It seems like a “secular worship”; and if we take seriously what the RO theologians tell us (and I do) , it is a “faith”; a theology with a set of assumptions.

I noticed in another West Wing episode how President Bartlett , when asked by Charlie if he would have dropped the bomb on Hiroshima, brought up as his first response the matter of “some believed that a conventinal invasion would have cost x number of lives, and so the bomb actually saved lives…..and when Charlie pressed and asked again, “so, would YOU ….”, Bartlett looked at him, paused, and then the scene changed, and I had to shake my head at the cop-out that represented. No stand at all on that one. A “calculation” based rather unapologetically on the value of “American lives” without much accounting for “Japanese” lives. It amounted basically to a trade, and not even an ACTUAL trade (since the “projected” loss of American lives was a theory, and proposed as a justification for what the leaders wanted to do anyway (which was insisting on unconditional surrender and scaring the shit out of Russia….kind of reminds me of the General Dyer character in Ganndhi who , in the hearing that ensued after he ordered his troops to massacre hundreds of unarmed Indian civilians at a public meeting, said “My intent was to inflict a lesson that would be felt throughout all India”. The U.S. wanted to leave an impression, and so they set the justification mythologies in motion)

Still, the dialogue and stories in The West Wing is eons above anything I’ve seen on TV in years. And it’s really not radical left at all. In fact, much of the time it portrays what those who are cynical of politics are assuming is happening; Josh Lyman, as liable as I find his character, his calculated campaign strategy , despite his admiration for Santos’ independence and disdain for posturing, is almost always for posturing. He is portrayed as doing all this for the sake of the “ends”, and this is the “reality” of politics, and so , I guess this would be an accurate portrayal and another reason to give the show accolades. When I notice how some of my Bush-fan acquaintances refuse to watch it, I can only notice what a shame it is that the animosity that exists between political opponents can so polarize that the sheer quality of the story of this show and the dialogue is totally missed (no, not that they don’t “get it”, but that they simply WON’T WATCH IT). I suppose that any Bush supporters who do would not like the Vinnick character, since he is written as a “likeable” Republican (and the Alan Alda choice doesn’t hurt the effort either ); he just doesn’t seem to have the attack-viciousness that the neocon crowd seems to like.

The show has given me an “escape” from political reality. I guess 7 seasons is much better than a lot of good shows last. I would have liked to have seen a continuation with Jimmy Smits, and seen how they handled future “ripped from the headlines” material —such as the Camp David Talks the West Wing did after the attack on the US caravan that injured Donna and killed General Fitzwallis. The standoff between Bartlett andhis staff on “response” was good writing, and more fodder for thinking like “boy, if only our actual leaders had such sense; at LEAST that much sense. Not non-violence exactly, but certainly committed to something of a proportianal response, unlike the “opportunist” leaders we have now. The much lesser than two evils. Just makes me feel: “If only we could be so fortunate as to avoid the mess made by the neocons who care for nothing but their own interests and their “way of life” which they conflate with some generalized, idealized, “American way of life”. Christians in this country should know better than to place their trust in such national idolatries.