Episode 51: How 'The West Wing' Poisoned the Liberal Mind
Post-Cold War liberal chauvinism knew no better ideological conduit than the hit NBC series The West Wing. Foreign policy was imperial, staffers were self-satisfied, and Serious Democrats fended off radical leftists and made the Tough Choices needed to run a benevolent superpower.\xa0 \xa0 The West Wing, created and primarily written by Aaron Sorkin, heavily influenced the politics of dozens of high-status Obama-era liberals. By their own admission, we know it had among its superfans Obama staffers Sam Graham-Felsen and Eric Lesser, Vox founders Ezra Klein and Matt Yglesias, The New Statesman\u2019s Helen Lewis, MSNBC\u2019s Lawrence O\u2019Donnell (who produced and wrote for the show), Democratic party hacks Meredith Shiner and Micah Lasher, and many more. Indeed, it\u2019s fair to say anyone under 40 who came up through the ranks of liberal public relations and politics during the Obama years was either directly impacted by The West Wing or, indirectly, by those under its comforting, Starbucks-color-palette worldview.\xa0 \xa0 On this week's episode, we discuss how this Sorkinized worldview both informed and reflected prevailing thought in the Democratic Party, promoted smugness as the highest virtue, and\u2013\u2013more generally\u2013\u2013how ideology is spread through seemingly benign cultural products like schlocky television dramas.\xa0 \xa0 We are joined by Toronto-based writer and co-host of the Michael and Us podcast Luke Savage. \xa0