We The People

In the midst of absolute non-stop bingeing episodes of The West Wing, I bummed a Prime password in order to watch What the Constitution Means to Me. Heidi Schreck’s autobiographical play premiered in 2017, ran on Broadway in 2019 and, at some unknown point in the future when touring Broadway is once again a thing, is set to head out on a national tour. But we don’t have to wait. Schreck’s play, filmed during its’ Broadway run, is now available to stream. And stream it you should.

 
The play’s premise is based on Schreck’s time spent crossing the country giving speeches about the Constitution during her teen years, eventually making enough to fund her college education. One wonders how the teenaged Schreck engaged with what some consider an arcane document. The United States Constitution, the document upon which the foundation of our republic is built, carries an air of mystery. Hundreds of years old, incredibly difficult to amend, the Constitution may seem to have little relevance to the day-to-day life of people living in the United States. Over the course of the play Schreck schools the audience better than any history teacher ever could that the Constitution, in fact, has a more direct impact than many would ever imagine.

Schreck's feelings about the Constitution, naturally, have evolved over time. And Schreck, as an adult, is more willing and able to come to terms with some of the traumas that she and her family has experienced. To detail her specific personal connections to the Constitution here would be to reveal too much of the play’s content. Suffice it to say, touching on immigration, women’s rights and domestic abuse, Schreck’s connections to the document and the effect of its' interpretation are eye opening.

Schreck is an engaging storyteller if a bit frenetic. At times, the play seems to lose focus, but Schreck addresses that. And, in reality, any seeming digressions only serve to make the play all that more personal. At the play’s conclusion, a young student debater joins Schreck on stage. The two spar in a brief parliamentary style debate, one taking the position to keep the Constitution, the other, to abolish it. At the end of the debate, the audience takes a vote: keep or abolish.

 
What I found most surprising and engaging,  even given my admittedly lacking Constitutional knowledge (though I did rock a Con Law paper about the Terry stop), is that both arguments have valid points. Points that anyone could admit they identify with. And therein lies the case for everyone in this country to watch this play. When personal connections are made with the Constitution, with laws, with policies, the tendency is for us all to become more invested, even perhaps, as Schreck advocates, run for local office. Eventually, over time, the policymakers look a lot less like old, white men and more like the diverse country we are. And the laws and policies that are produced become equitable to all people. Watch What the Constitution Means to Me. And then vote. 

Welcome to Fantasy Island

And on my fantasy island, Jed Bartlet is President. And not only is he intelligent and kind, but he is surrounded by a group of advisors who work incredibly hard to run the government for the betterment of the people of the United States. 

The West Wing is pretty close to television perfection. “Is.” Present tense. For two reasons: because the show is more than just extraordinary for its’ time but also because streaming services ensure that nothing exists in the past the way it used to. Aaron Sorkin’s masterpiece is brilliantly acted, exquisitely written and is just as relevant today as when it debuted thirty years ago. 

Martin Sheen leads the incredible cast. Sheen imbues the role of President Bartlet with every quality one could want in a leader: passionate, fair, incredibly intelligent and yet still willing to admit he cannot possibly know everything. Around Bartlet circles his senior staff, played throughout the series by Allison Janney, Bradley Whitford, Richard Schiff, John Spencer, Dule Hill, Rob Lowe and Joshua Malina. Every single one of the actors absolutely transforms into their characters. Janney stands out. Her portrayal of Press Secretary CJ Cregg is a showcase for her ability to balance and pull off a delicate mix of drama and humor, even physical comedy. But Sheen and John Spencer, as Chief of Staff Leo McGarry, are the tent poles of The West Wing. Their leadership and the respect they garner from everyone around them is very apparently not just the case on screen.

As a devoted fan of The American President, I was already well acquainted with Sorkin’s skill in the fictional political arena. The West Wing's dialogue is incredibly smart. To the point that, from time to time, a dictionary is a necessary viewing companion. The characters speak at a rapid-fire pace, illustrating the fact that they know there is so much to do and so little time in which to do it. Along those same lines, Sorkin made famous the ‘walk and talk’ in which characters hold their conversations on the go, you know, like in real life. The brilliance in the writing is not just the dialogue, it is also the construction and execution of the storylines and the contrasts present in every episode. There are good days and bad. Some days you’re up and your coworker is down, sometimes the opposite. And more often that not everything can, and does, change on a dime. Sorkin did not pen every episode and praise is, of course, due to the slate of writers for the show. The writers did an incredible job illustrating how challenging the act of governing is, and how many devoted, hard-working people that requires. At least in normal times.

Which leads me to relevance. In some ways, the relevancy of The West Wing is heart-breaking. Systemic racism, gay rights, Roe v. Wade, unrest in the Middle East, these stories could just as easily be from today’s headlines rather than those of thirty years ago. With one incredibly key difference: during the Bartlet administration there are thousands of intelligent people working to make this fantasy island a better place to live. Cut to, real world. The incoherence in the current administration qualifies for the moniker ‘stranger than fiction’ better than any storyline a team of writers could ever come up with. And I realize it may not be entirely fair to compare a fictional administration to a real one, but with White House staffers advising for The West Wing, the portrayal of the goings on in the Bartlet administration is as a close a glimpse the public will get to the day to day struggle involved in running the United States government. Without a doubt, this fictional band of civil servants is whom I choose to think are running the country. Let us hope beyond hope that by this time next week my fantasy island bears a closer resemblance to our reality.