A new respect for Lawrence O’Donnell

I just finished watching all seven seasons of The West Wing, which aired from 2000-2007. There is an important lesson in most every episode.

I didn’t have the good fortune of seeing any of these seasons when they first appeared. Those were the years I was working night and day transcribing court reporter notes, creating deposition and trial transcripts. Nearly all had deadlines, and besides, I loved the work. I began in this field in 1986 and continued until I retired. The West Wing years were when I was the busiest, as a scopist for several reporters.

However, now that I have had the chance to view the series, to which Lawrence O’Donnell refers so often, I have had an important education about how things get done. I know not everything was exposed in West Wing, and I doubt that much of it applied to activity during the Trump administration. What O’Donnell and the other writers and consultants shared was how things have normally worked, and hopefully will work again soon.

The series ends on a note that precisely connects to the end of the Biden administration, and the events we are witnessing today. The Bartlet team found itself in a bad spot, pulled into an ongoing hostile situation not of their making. They had sent troops to try and prevent a war between two superpowers. This nightmare situation was passed onto the new incoming administration.

This is precisely where we find ourselves today, as the next president will take office just as Iran and Israel are deciding whether to start World War III. But this time we were a bit more involved in this hostility than I would have preferred. The United States, in a position of having to defend Israel as a sovereign nation, has sent billions of tax dollars and weapons to assist, no matter what Israel’s IDF decides to do.

Will a new administration be able to change this picture? Can we be peacekeepers between Israel and all the Arab nations in the area? Couldn’t we just stop sending money and stuff that makes it worse? I don’t care about defense contractors and their stock prices. Let them build solar panels and storage batteries.

Climate Disasters

I don’t remember any specific episodes dealing with the problems like the ones we have today, with hurricanes and wildfires. I will be happy to be corrected if I missed it.

At this point we are facing both the heated planet with very little hope for change, as well as a noisy and well-promoted bullhorn spouting misinformation. It is doubly dangerous because when bad information is scary enough, it will feed on itself and get repeated.