Why I Miss "The West Wing"

Aaron Sorkin's The West Wing, bygone now for almost a year, was more than a fanciful television dramatization of a much talked about and little understood government office, it was necessary escapist therapy for liberals. As a good friend of mine, a young Democratic campaign activist once put it, "West Wing is the hour when everyone pretends we have a democrat for president."

Born in the twilight of the Clinton presidency, the show captured and even blatantly duplicated the setup and style of the then Democratic White House. In 2001, when the media-darling and desert war hero George W. Bush entered the office, the show found it's true purpose. In the following years of unspeakable confusion and maddening lack of honesty, our country plunged into a dark and secretive path of war and tragedy.

And so we found ourselves engulfed in the mind-numbing daily cycle of international turmoil, led by a secluded and evasive group of snarling, smirking aristocrats. The West Wing was our only respite. In the merciful bounds of the high minded sitcom, we could watch and believe that our government cared about our welfare and spent time contemplating the best way to help everyone.

Just imagine for a moment The West Wing redone with the current administration, the W. presidency as it's focus. First replace all of the heated debates about morality versus necessity and replace them with an unrepentant sense of justification in lying constantly. Next, replace every issue and concern in the show, from domestic social issues to international standing, and replace them with a single solitary war that dominates every episode for seven years.

The West Wing manages to transform the awesome and massively powerful White House into a lovable and easily understandable group of human beings. The characters experience massive self-doubt, fail, are redeemed, suffer lapses in personal faith, and above all, grow and develop as people through the lessons learned in their failures. Can anyone name a presidential administration that refuses to do any one of the aforementioned acts?