Whenever political anxiety gets me so on edge that freezing my phone into a block of ice and joining the back-to-the-land movement start to seem like reasonable decisions, I put on an episode of The West Wing, and let Leo, Toby, Josh, C.J., Sam, and President Bartlet take the wheel. The West Wing is—and always was—a liberal fantasy, and an imperfect one at that. Aaron Sorkin wrote some jokes into the first couple seasons that now read plainly as workplace harassment. Beloved characters disappear without warning or explanation. There is an entire episode that is just an extremely boring “live” “broadcast” of a fake presidential debate.
But none of that matters when W.G. “Snuffy” Walden’s score swells over the opening credits, filling me with patriotic fervor for a fictional administration where public servants are good at their jobs, understand the life-and-death stakes of running a country, and harbor appropriate discomfort with the power entrusted to them. Electoral College aside (because fuck that relic of slavery!), I am a true believer in the Democratic process and the imperfect, ongoing American experiment. I believe in civic engagement the way some people believe in the eucharist. Because when public policy is working the way it should, it has the power to make people’s lives better in material, measurable ways. It can be transformative. At present, it’s been hijacked. I need to be reminded that this wasn’t always the case, and won’t be forever.
I share my appreciation for Sorkin’s long-departed TV show in part because Lin-Manuel Miranda has cited it as an inspiration for his American history hip-hop musical Hamilton, whose touring production has just arrived in Portland. But mostly, I bring it up because, even though the play’s been running for two years, and it might give you FOMO to know you’re watching its second touring cast, and the cheap-ticket lottery odds are not in anyone’s favor, one of the best reasons to see something like Hamilton right now is that it brings that essential West Wing feeling, that reminder of the promise of America. Only moreso, because it’s about our founding fathers, and none of them are played by old white guys. This feels like a big, ebullient “fuck you” to the racist assholes currently mistaking misspelled bigotry for public policy while they enter and exit (and exit, and exit) the highest office in the land.