THERE is one candidate out there who would make an ideal president. He's smart, he's compassionate, and he doesn't alter his views according to what the polls tell him each week. There's just one problem: He's fictional.
Democratic President Josiah Bartlet presides over the world of NBC's The West Wing. President Bartlet might not be real, but his existence, imaginary though it may be, is important all the same. Everyone should watch this show because it illustrates what could be, and because of that, it makes us less willing to accept what we have.
Real life can be pretty discouraging, especially when the candidates we do have don't exactly offer us a choice between apples and oranges. These candidates give us the choice between apples and, well, more apples.
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The choice of one presidential candidate over the other seems like a choice between a presidency that will either be boring or simply pathetic. It seems that they spend so much time tailoring their images, trying to get certain crucial groups of voters to like them, that they end up dithering on everything.
Even more discouraging, it seems that the sorry state of current political affairs may affect any hope the country has of having a government staffed by the best and brightest of the country. A survey was conducted asking members of the Phi Beta Kappa Honor society, the cream of the crop of college undergraduates, their views on working for the federal government ("Top College Students Remain Skeptical About Federal Careers, Survey Shows," The Washington Post, Oct. 8).
The results showed that the government has a hard time competing with companies and other employers for the best graduating college students. A major reason that federal government jobs hold little allure for top-notch graduates is that a majority of the students did not think that federal workers make a difference in society. Only 38 percent thought that federal jobs "have a real impact on national issues," and just 33 percent said the jobs offer "opportunities to make the world better."
Of the 13 percent who said working for the federal government was "very appealing," their main reason for thinking of a federal career was because they believed the government gave them a serious opportunity to make a difference for society.
It seems that the people who are poised to become leaders in the future - namely, students at the University and our peers at colleges across the country - are becoming discouraged that the federal government and the politicians who run it will ever transcend the sorry state they're in today.
That is why The West Wing is such a source of hope, and why it is important for young people to watch it to see this view of politics, idealized though it may be. Even the fictional president's world isn't completely divorced from reality: Bartlet's first term got off to a rocky start.
The president and his staff spent their first year in office trying not to rock the boat too much, and in the process they didn't get a whole lot done. The way that you can tell this is fiction, however, is that unlike many real-world politicians, Bartlet and his staff woke up. Rather than worrying about getting reelected, they figured they'd work to make whatever time they did have in office count.
Some people tuning in to The West Wing may dismiss it as a vision of a fairytale White House in the clouds. Well, they're right to think of it as a fairytale; it is. Though the world of The West Wing is imaginary, it doesn't mean it should be ignored. Quite the opposite, actually.
The show depicts politics at its best, which we have seen very rarely lately, and perhaps that is why the show is so popular. It won the Emmy for Best Dramatic Series last year, and is one of the most watched shows on television.
It seems that The West Wing is more than just a show - it is a phenomenon. The reason is because it allows for some hope. In an election year when the choices are less than compelling, hope for something better in the future is pretty necessary.
It illustrates what could be, and in comparing the ideal world of President Bartlet and his staff to the one we have right now, we are less willing to accept what we have.
One of the characters on the show may have said it best when he said, "I'm tired of it! Year after year after year after year, having to choose between the lesser of 'who cares?' Of trying to get myself excited about a candidate who can speak in complete sentences! Of setting the bar so low I can hardly look at it. They say a good man can't get elected president. I don't believe that ... do you?"
(Laura Sahramaa's column appears Fridays in The Cavalier Daily.)
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