This is more than you really need to know about me, but I haven't been sleeping well lately--jet lag, the economy, the heat, the world, not to mention the various quotidian irritations of my own little life. In the wide-awake wee hours of the morning, I've discovered reruns of The West Wing, and it's uncannily prescient. A charismatic, youthful, minority Democrat with a beautiful wife and two adorable children but limited experience in the U.S. Congress runs for President against an elderly long-time GOP senator who, although originally something of a maverick, ends up playing to the party faithful (he confides to leaders of the religious right that he will appoint a slate of pro-life judges). The Democrat (played by Jimmy Smits) chooses as his running mate an older experienced pol; the Republican (Alan Alda) chooses a conservative ideologue. When the Democrat wins (no surprise since the show is the creation of the cleverly left-leaning Aaron Sorkin) he selects a political rival to be Secretary of State. Keep in mind that this was all written long before most of us had even heard of Barack Obama.
Although it's tempting to think of The West Wing as a contemporary I Ching (take the issue of gun control: "Can't we acknowledge that the second amendment was written before there were street lights, let alone a police force?"), I actually know better than to seek much wisdom, political or any other kind, from a TV show, however well crafted and performed it is. But the drama on this series echoes some of my own experience in 2008 when I was working with the Obama campaign in Pennsylvania--registering voters until the deadline for registration passed, then doing what's called "persuasion." We got lists of people who had been identified by telephone polling as "undecided," or people who had not voted in any of the last four elections. Persuasion was less rewarding than registration--it felt intrusive, somewhat arrogant, and ultimately futile to try and pull recalcitrant people over to my way of thinking, even though I was, and remain, passionate about the issues. Basically we were talking to the ambivalent and the apathetic. But there was also a good representation of the racist. I'm neither a mental-health professional nor a mind-reader, but standing on someone's front stoop, looking into his eyes when he declares himself undecided, it's pretty clear if that's actually code for "I'm not voting for the black guy."
When the last election cycle began (it feels like eons ago), Barack Obama, like the Jimmy Smits character, was an improbable choice, even for a party that has a short personal history of shooting itself in the foot. There are no perfect candidates; elections are always a choice among perils. For many of us, the perils of Palin were insurmountable. (As another West Wing character said: Before I look for anything, I look for a mind at work, and the woman John McCain chose to be that critical heartbeat away from the Presidency did seem, in Sorkin argot, like a 22-caliber mind in a 357-magnum world.) We rattled all the chains in Obama's closet, and the millions of us who voted for him became convinced of his intellect, his integrity, his acuity, his command of complicated issues, his decision-making abilities--his gravitas. Eighteen months into his first term, we have some satisfaction, some disappointment. But whatever assessment you make of his presidency thus far, it's saddening to realize that some Americans still look at him and see mostly race. The issue of race is unquestionably behind the rhetoric of the tea partyers, the birthers, the militiaists.
Seeking insight from The West Wing (again, I admit, a dubious prospect), I'm hopeful for the future. Before Jimmy Smits inherits the Oval Office, just about everyone in the previous administration commits some monumental screw-up: President Josiah Bartlett conceals his multiple sclerosis from the public. Toby Ziegler divulges classified NASA information. Donna Moss lies to the House Government Oversight Committee. Sam Seaborn sleeps with a hooker. But the good guys find their true north again--they make brilliant nominations to the Supreme Court, they enact historic legislation, they even deal with an oil spill.
Oh, the joy of a scripted life.