Yes, these last eight years have been bad, and I doubt many will argue on behalf of President George W. Bush at this point in history.
But one man made it all seem a little better: Josiah Bartlett. Bartlett was, on NBC’s “The West Wing,” an honorable president and a good man. He served his country to the best of his ability, trying each day to make life better.
He tried to make college affordable for Americans by creating a tax cut, created a plan to fix social security and created incentives for American companies to develop and use alternative energy sources and never balanced the budget, but he tried to do it every year.
He wasn’t perfect, and he made enormous mistakes. He didn’t disclose a diagnose of relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis to the American public. He refused to compromise on budget cuts and, by failing to sign Congress’ budget bill, shut down the federal government for days.
And he was never tested by an attack like America faced on September 11 and maybe that would have changed him.
I have found myself pulling out my “West Wing” DVDs a lot these days. Each time this administration did something I just couldn’t fathom, I found an episode with a similar situation. When President Bush pardoned I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby before he went to trial, I watched “Institutional Memory,” from the seventh season.
And even when the regular news got too hard, I turned to Bartlett. After the Virginia Tech shootings, I watched the episode “20 Hours in America,” where Bartlett spoke about a bombing at a college swimming pool and how students ran into the burning building to help their friends.
“The streets of heaven are too crowded with angels tonight,” he said. “They’re our students and our teachers and our parents and our friends. The streets of heaven are too crowded with angels, but every time we think we have measured our capacity to meet a challenge, we look up and we’re reminded that that capacity may well be limitless. This is a time for American heroes. We will do what is hard. We will achieve what is great. This is a time for American heroes and we reach for the stars.”
What really shook me about “The West Wing” and Bartlett’s presidency was the notion of public service, and how there is honor in that. The characters weren’t doing things to get ahead, they were – for the most part – doing their part to make America better. They were the good guys, and they didn’t get book deals.
This idealism brought me to Northeastern in 2005 as a political science major, not the journalism major I am today. But as I saw the greed, the corruption, the ignorance that seems to motivate so many politicians. I couldn’t see a future for myself in that world.
During my freshman year, “The West Wing” was – more than ever before – my escape from an increasingly frightening and discouraging world. I saw the government fail to respond appropriately to the destruction caused by Hurricane Katrina. I saw the names and faces of the Americans who died serving the nation in faraway places like Afghanistan and Iraq.
I have no idea what went through President Bush’s head at that time, but I know what went through my head and I know what would have been going through Bartlett’s.
I wish I could vote for Josiah Bartlett Tuesday, but votes for fictional characters don’t count, so I’m voting for the closest match I’ve got: Senator Barack Obama.
– Matt Collette can be reached at [email protected].
