holding out for a hero

So I got The West Wing DVD's, finally. Just 4 seasons, but still, I've been looking for it all my life so I'll take those and run. As I was watching it, it struck me just why I loved the show so much: I know it's just a TV show and that it's not as close to Real Life(TM) as I'd like it to be, but there's leadership that's leadership on that show. The kind of president who cares when and ex-marine pilot who was flying in to see him dies in a plane crash; who's bothered when Indian Troops move in on Pakistan making less-than-friendly overtures; who calls his Navy SEALs when there's a hurricane heading their way that they possibly might not be able to escape just to check in on them; who, before filling a supreme court justice position, vets the prospective candidate, and actually gives up a slum dunk nomination that would have helped his cause politically just because it's come up that the guy doesn't believe in an inherent right to privacy; a president with a Nobel prize in Economics who when he stands to speak, you can tell.

A white house chief of staff who won't let any of his minions publicly defend him when a scandal's about to come out about him so that if he doesn't survive, he doesn't take anyone else down with him, and the kind of minions who'd wanna take the fall for their chief of staff because they believe enough in him to know that if it was them on the line, he'd spare no expense to defend and clear them. A communications director who, when he randomly discovers that a war veteran died and was not treated like the hero he was, went against the code and used to president's name to arrange a guard of honor for the dead guy, a guy he didn't know, never even met, but did that just because he recognized what (crucial) part that person played in the larger American picture; someone who knows what books Oscar and Hammersmith (or was that Hammerstein) wrote. A press secretary who won't go to the press briefing and lie to those reporters point blank just because that's what she was told to do.

When you think about it, isn't that the kind of leaders we want? An administration that believes in what they're doing, and that deep down really wanna make people's lives better. And not just people they know directly, the entire electorate. People who believe in the system and don't wanna override it for personal gain, people who, asides from an urge to change the lives of their electorate, actually have the psychological wherewithal to do it. Our president has a Masters degree in Economics, from the London School of Economics no less, but I swear, you would not be thought outlandish if you assumed after observing him for 2 days that he probably didn't go all the way through high school. It's not just that he can't see past his nose (or maybe he can, just not where everyone else is concerned), it's how out of touch he is with the ground realities, the kinds of decisions he makes, the things he says when he's reading out of a prepared speech. It's the way all of them relate with each other, always bickering in the news about small non-consequential things like who wasn't consulted before a big decision was made and who between the VP and PM reports to the other etc. We listen and we laugh, but then later on, I sit and I think about it and want nothing to do with my own country. People are supposed to inherently have a soft spot for the land of their heritage. "Vergess nicht dein Herkunft," goes that German saying (do not forget where you came from, loosely translated). But I can't say I share in that sentiment. Not with the kind of leaders (I'm gonna say I use that word loosely) we have and are going to continue having for the foreseeable future. I suppose our day is coming, when we shall have a president who's a president. But that's probably one of those things I'll believe when I see.

In one of the scenes at the end of the first season, the president got shot. He recovered, but that news wasn't made immediately available to the public. That very night, outside the hospital where he was being treated, a vigil began - thousands of people gathered out there, saying a prayer for their dearly beloved, showing support, hoping their hero makes it through. Honestly, I don't see myself doing that for my president, but maybe that's just me (lemme not speak as though I'm speaking for the country). There's a bit I once read in Sun Tzu's The Art of War, about how to treat people who work under you (like everything else in the book this assumes the setup of an army commander and his soldiers): Regard your soldiers as your children, and they will follow you into the deepest valley. Look upon them as your own beloved sons, and they will stand by you even unto death.

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