“West Wing” nostalgia just won’t stop

Fictional President Josiah Bartlet stopped by a Democratic research headquarters in a strip mall in Madison, Wisconsin, last Sunday morning. He was there on behalf of Kamala Harris, addressing a room full of nervous volunteers stranded in a real political campaign.

Bartlet – or rather Martin Sheen, the actor who played him on the beloved TV show The West Wing– was an emissary from a bygone era of better political angels who may or may not have ever existed off-screen. The show aired from 1999 to 2006, but has continued to inspire new generations of agents on streaming platforms with its depiction of a noble Democratic White House, untouched by House of cards, Veepand the Trump-era darkness that would follow.

“While acting is what I do for a living,” Sheen told the audience, “activism is what I do to stay alive.” He looked at his audience, about a hundred people were ready for a day of recruiting and knocking on doors. His voice took on a tone of fatherly warmth: “I see all the faces here.” All this work is “worth it,” he assured everyone. “I see the light is on.”

Personally, I saw fear. Fear and exhaustion too. I might have projected it, but it seemed palpable in this den of last-minute activity: the tension and burden of yet another jump-ball election, with the stakes far too high, the margin altogether too thin, and the nerve altogether too frayed .

With two weeks to go in this writers’ nightmare of a campaign, and Wisconsin still up for grabs, all the usual platitudes felt far too plausible: everyone was talking about democracy at stake and the threat of fascism looming. other side and America. facing an existential moment and all that. None of it felt like the usual overwrought melodrama.

Who can blame volunteers for wanting a little escapism and some donuts on a Sunday morning? Sheen took three of his West Wing co-stars: Bradley Whitford (who played Deputy Chief of Staff Josh Lyman), Richard Schiff (Communications Director Toby Ziegler) and Mary McCormack (Deputy National Security Advisor Kate Harper). They were cheerful but quick with their reality checks. “This is not some stinking television show,” Whitford said. “The stakes are real.”

Since then The West Wing production stopped, the cast has enjoyed its own next act as a kind of progressive wish-cast ensemble. First Lady Jill Biden hosted several actors and creators last month at a White House celebration of the show’s 25th anniversary. They have visited some of the well-trodden battlefields of the campaign trail. I’ve encountered them regularly over the years, popping up at Iowa’s various corporate headquarters, candidate events, and hotel lobbies; New Hampshire; Washington, DC; and various other political petting zoos.

“We’re not just a bunch of people from television here paying lip service,” Whitford said Sunday. “What you do is so important.” The cast likes to think The West Wing is equally important, or at least has some degree of relevance today, in these very different political times.

After the recruitment headquarters, the West Wing company on the way to a full theater on the other side of the city. “We’re going to win!” Whitford stated on stage. It sounded like he really believed it. On the other hand, he is an actor.

Schiff echoed his co-star’s message, but lacked the same volume and conviction. “I’m going to say it softer than Brad, but we’re going to win,” he said. The crowd cheered. Hope can be invigorating, even when laundered by Hollywood characters who left their fictional offices nearly two decades ago.

Yes, it’s easy to be cynical. The West Wing was a TV show – a very good one, depicting a world that was still longed for, even though it was covered in dust. You may question the usefulness of these celebrity drop-bys. But at the same time: why not? What’s the point of nostalgia to keep the crowds awake in these last, wearying days?

I admit that I came away less skeptical than I went in. “I know I’m preaching to the choir,” Whitford told the Democratic volunteers. “But I just want to make you sing!” And everyone sang: “The Star Spangled Banner” to kick off the morning and “America the Beautiful” as the cast left the stage.

Sheen, now 84, looks extremely well preserved – but thankfully has no interest in any role beyond the so-called president emeritus he still plays in the eyes of his adoring public. He told me that at least once a day, and often more often, someone will come up to him and address him as “Mr. President.” He had just boarded a plane at LAX the day before and a fellow passenger greeted him: “Good morning, Mr. President, is Air Force One in the store?” He happily plays along; being friendly is not hard work Changing minds, getting votes and winning elections is hard work.

On Sunday, Sheen emphasized that the fight is its own reward. He likes to tell an old Irish story about a man who dies and arrives at the gates of heaven. “St. Peter says, ‘Show me your scars,’” Sheen said. But the man has no scars and Saint Peter tells him how sad that is. “Was there nothing worth fighting for?” asks Saint Peter. At this point in the story, Sheen’s voice gained several octaves, and he began the crescendo of his speech: “We are rightly called to find something in our lives worth fighting for. Something very personal and uncompromising.” Nothing that has value in life, he argued, comes easy.

“You are my president!” a woman next to me shouted. Within seconds of his pep talk ending, Sheen was swamped. Volunteers posed for photos and grabbed Harris-Walz’s signs for him to autograph.

A young woman walking up to Sheen/Bartlett seemed quite emotional. Meeting a real fake president can be a memorable experience. “It was all because of your show that I got into politics,” the young woman, Amanda Boss, told him. The boss said she started looking West Wing at the age of five. She loved how fast everyone talked and walked and how important everything seemed to be, always. She told me she had never met a president. I had to remind her that Saint Bartlet was a fictional character.

“Yes,” she said. “But in my mind he was real.”