Thank God that the reign of Terror from that putrid, Pinko, Limousine Liberal, brainwashing balderdash that was The West Wing is now finished! I haven’t felt such relief since they caught Son of Sam.
The truth is, as much as I hate idiots like Michael Moore and Al Sharpton, the damage they do is minimal. Besides, they are such obvious hucksters they serve as great punch lines. We all love to make fun of them. But the damage a show like West Wing does is FAR worse than anything Barbra or Alec could ever do. Not even Jimmy Carter with a head full of Ritalin could do this much damage.
The horrible damage caused by The West Wing was how it portrays the world. The world of West Wing is the world of Left wing idealists. It is a world where most Americans are victims who need to be coddled. It’s a world where foreign governments act rationally and most of the worlds ills can be solved by more American Foreign Aid. It’s a world where anyone not on the East Coast or West Coast is a white trash dullard who cares more about The Dukes of Hazzard than the moralistic imperative of Gay Marriage.
Television is a funny thing. If you run a TV series where the husband and wife sleep in separate beds, pretty soon, Americans start thinking that is the norm. TV plays a huge role in shaping and defining modern culture. The West Wing was created to portray Democratic leaders as intellectual Supermen, as sensitive as grief councilors and as morally just as the Knights of Camelot. Republican politicians are portrayed as sniveling, racist, rich and uncaring White Men. It is so obvious that it has a cartoonish quality. If the writers thought they could get away with having the Democrats wear white cowboy hats and the Republicans wear Black cowboys hats, you can bet your ACLU card they would have.
The West Wing was a thinly veiled attempt to influence public opinion that the ideals of the Democrats were more sound than those of the Republicans. They created a world which was meant to closely resemble today’s political atmosphere, except in the stilted, biased view of the writers, the Democrats almost always won. And their lofty ideals always triumphed. It is a 21st century version of Popeye beating up Buck Toothed and slanty eyed Japs in World War II cartoons. It is trying to influence how you think about world events. In a way, it is 21st Century propaganda. Now, the Arts have been trying to influence politics for generations from Thomas Paine’s ‘Common Sense’ to Erasumus’ In Praise of Folly;
But the difference here is that the writers of West Wing are infringing on traditionally non political turf. We expect to try to be influenced when we read a newspaper or magazine. We accept that certain media trying to persuade us to adopt their point of view. Would anyone deny The New York Times is Liberal? Would anyone deny that FoxNews is more conservative than CNN?
The West Wing is using Entertainment to influence public opinion and to push its watchers to a certain political point of view.
“Well, you know, I have a luxury that news outlets don't. I can tell stories, and it's more difficult for them to tell a story.” “A news organization has a much different responsibility. I might not be telling you the whole story. I might not be telling you a story in a manner that is properly sophisticated. “ - Aaron Sorkin, mushroom eating Political Genius, equating his fiction with the realities of newsgathering.
My big problem with the West Wing is that television writers, drunk with the power of TVs ability to influence and teach, are putting themselves in the position of elected officials and investigative reporters. Political figures make big decisions and have to live with the consequences of their actions. Reporters have to provide evidence to back up their claims. The politicians of the West Wing do not have these real world encumberments.
They believe their entertaining stories and biased little teleplays can enlighten you to their way of thinking and thereby solve all of America’s problems. It’s as if the dolts of America can’t be relied upon to accept their progressive and intellectually sound ideals so we have to spoon feed them a story to get them to come around.
What arrogance! There are times I have quite an ego, but never in my life have I thought I had the only, best and most truly righteous solution to a problem. The writers of West Wing attack create story lines that closely recreate current American politics and then they solve these problems, effortlessly, and with no negative repercussions, by using their tried and true Democratic ideals. It’s the smug certainty of these writers and their self assured zeal that baffles me. Is anyone so frequently correct in their thinking that they can strut around with such smugness? Even FDR and yes, even Reagan made mistakes. How anyone could be so certain about anything in politics is unfathomable. The best and brightest football handicappers are only right about 70% of the time, and politics is much more complex than football. Unfortunately.
The West Wing was a network supported weekly 60 minute love letter for the Democratic party. It was almost as bad as NPR, except NPR is actually TAX PAYER financed Leftist propaganda and the West Wing was for free. Thank God this show was cancelled. Now, if only Commander in Chief, you know, the This-is-what-would-happen-if-you-elected-that-Democratic-Messiah-known-as-Hilary-Clinton” TV show were cancelled too! - Eep Eep!
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