7.16.2025

-Everyone is stupid in an election year.
-No, everyone is treated like they're stupid in an election year.
(The West Wing 0209, 'Galileo')

The last time I binged The West Wing must've been 2020, the last time things felt like this, when I was having a lot of trouble sleeping for personal as well as political reasons. I'll say what I'm sure countless fans and critics have said: the dialogue is outstanding, the acting is all top notch, and the setting and premise are idealized. This last bit is what makes the show valuable. It's all driven by a fanatical devotion to the idea that government can be a good thing in the hands of the right people. Add that to the list of things I want to believe.

I've had the show running in the background while I sort and pack. Seeing all these hypercompetent people work together and compromise and solve problems and argue productively makes me emotional. It's the same reaction I sometimes have to watching Star Trek: The Next Generation. Maybe I've never been part of something like that but I'd settle for an arrangement not quite so grandiose as working in the White House or serving on a warp capable starship. Not that I'm ruling either one out.

We could use a sweet but salty president with a Nobel prize in economics who surrounds himself with people even smarter than he is. Also Martin Sheen might be my favorite actor of his generation. Apocalypse Now and his voice acting as the Illusive Man in the Mass Effect games put him two thirds of the way there already but any scene he's in is a master class and reminds me of why I don't try to act.