donnajosh:THE WEST WING 5.17 – “The Supremes”Christ, what a terrible episode. What an absolute crock
donnajosh:THE WEST WING 5.17 – “The Supremes”Christ, what a terrible episode. What an absolute crock of shit. If The West Wing is a political fantasy, this is the episode that’s simply a delusion. Democrats have a real problem with proceduralism, and it’s this episode’s fatal flaw. When one side wants nine reactionary shitbags who will sign off on any law, no matter how unconstitutional or absurd, so long it makes things worse for nearly everyone in this country, we’re supposed to be happy that Bartlet nominates a liberal and a conservative? We’re supposed to be happy because they’ll have a debate? Fuck debate. Debate isn’t the point. This isn’t a high school civics class. Supreme Court justices are not here for the edification of citizens. All they accomplish in this episode is putting someone on the Court who will happily make life worse for us, because that’s who Republicans are. Not even the episode - it’s the show’s fatal flaw, but there’s no hiding from it when it’s this blatant. It was 2004, for pity’s sake. You can’t claim the writers didn’t know Republicans were like that in the middle of the Bush years. I was there! But no, we’re supposed to want to debate the people whose entire political platform at the time consisted of homophobia and Islamophobia. What’s there to debate? How quickly we should kill people?Like I said, it’s, proceduralism. The idea that the procedures of government are the sacred thing. So when Democrats and Republicans argue about whether we should lock up children in cages or not, that has to be respected. Because it’s the way things are done, and the content doesn’t matter. It’s the idea that the point of government is an abstract discussion of the law. Not improving things for people, not making the country a better place. Debate! With people who would gladly see you dead! Good god! It’s not abstract for so many of us, is all. And anyone who is able to prioritize the debate over the actual lives of actual people involved, they shouldn’t be in government in the first place. -- source link