The Left Wing

Abstract

The end of an era is traditionally a time of reckoning, and on the last day of the year, the century, and the millennium, the New York Times critic Laura Lippman issued her report card to the TV series making waves around the country. Whatever she gave with the left hand, praising the writers and the actors, she took away with the right, excoriating The West Wing for being more devastating to the Democrats than any rightwing conspiracy. In her pique she resembled John Podhoretz, who earlier that same year slammed the show from the opposite end of the political spectrum as “pornography for liberals” (23).

Liberals got women the right to vote, liberals got African Americans the right to vote, liberals created Social Security and lifted millions of elderly people out of poverty, liberals ended segregation, liberals passed the Civil Rights Act, the Voting Rights Act, liberals created Medicare, liberals passed the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act. What did conservatives do? They opposed every one of those programs, every one.

“The Debate,” The West Wing