The only reason Veep exists is that it couches its stories in comedy, which softens the blow and can be excused as an exaggeration of reality. Now, such a show would never be allowed to be made in the United States. I want a serious hour drama about a completely corrupt White House, one where we watch the complete decline of a central character who joins the administration with some enthusiasm, only to watch as their colleagues and even the President himself is shown to be such craven, rotten people. While watching the West Wing, I imagined the sort of show I’d like to watch about the U.S. You hear this in the opening theme of the West Wing, a John Williams-like score, evoking Copeland’s Fanfare for the Common Man, a somewhat fetishistic (fascistic?) move to place the institution above critique. Myth-building is integral to that process, imbuing an institution like The Office of the President with Spielberg-ian magic, making parts of the machine appear to exist outside standard definitions, the realm of the mystic. The Media works in tandem with the Capitalist powers to shape Americans’ perceptions of themselves, their history, and the planet to such destructive ends. They are corrupt from their moment of existence. Corruption IS the institution in almost every case: Capitalism, Corporate power, the Police State, etc. You hear talk about “corruption” within systems, implying that the institutions would function perfectly without that interference. ![]() This won’t surprise some people who have woken up to the idea that American power is housed with institutions, and blame always goes to individuals. Throughout this affair, Democrats go out of their way to talk about the need for a “strong Republican party” and are doing everything they can to connect what happened solely with Donald Trump and not the larger body of the Republican Party. You would think these hearings would be a powerful tool to take down this cadre still working to overthrow the government to establish a neo-Confederacy. The President at the time, Donald Trump, and a cabal of reactionaries & fascists agitated a crowd that had gathered into trying to kill the Congressional body and Trump’s own VP, Michael Pence. Capitol on the day votes were counted for the 2020 Presidential election. Second, the January 6th hearings are a lukewarm response to an attack on the U.S. For those readers in the far future, recovering these writings off of a charred hard drive discovered among the ruins of the post-nuclear wastelands: First of all, congrats on making it this far. ![]() ![]() As I am watching and writing about these episodes of The West Wing, the January 6th hearings are going on with the U.S.
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