I wonder what life is like on the West Wing universe right now?
Bartlet served from 1999 to 2007 (the elections are held in midterm years on the show) in a world where 9/11 never happened, so there were no wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. The series ended with the US stepping in to play peacekeeper between the Russians and the Chinese in Kazakhstan, which would surely become this universe’s analog to the War on Terror. How did President Santos (Hispanic Obama) handle the war he inherited? He made his opponent his Secretary of State, so you can imagine they disagree on foreign policy; Vinnick (McCain) was portrayed as a moderate Republican, but there’s no way Santos would give him carte blanche over the war. Santos himself served in the military, so he’s probably a warmonger (though the show is great American propaganda, hey would find a way to justify it and make us look like the good guys, maybe even have Santos end the war by the time he’s up for re-election)
Wha did the 2010 election look like? A Republican would almost certainly win, defeating Santos and undoing his and Bartlet’s legacies. 2014? 2018? Would there be a Trump analog in office today? Or would he be the 2011 - 2019 guy that the 2019 - present guy is cleaning up after?
Bartlet appointed three Supreme Court justices; one liberal, one neutral, and one SUPER conservative to appease Republicans. That can’t be good! Can you imagine if Clinton or Obama had appointed Brett Kavenaugh or Amy Coney Barrett? I mean, Bartlet had lost the senate and didn’t think he could push through anyone liberal unless he balanced it with someone else conservative, but this was before Mitch McConnell decided that he could singlehandedly hold the Supreme Court hostage, so the worst that could have happened was they voted him down. Ronald Reagan saw two justices voted down by the Democratic held Senate, McConnell was the first and to date only person to refuse to hold a vote for a justice. Bartlet could have pushed through two moderates, but he insisted upon a specific celebrity cameo to be chief justice (never seen again because the studio couldn’t afford Glenn Close twice)
The Democrats shots themselves in the foot during the Bartlet administration, in retrospect a frightening prediction of the Obama years, though the fictional ones are a lot more competent than the real ones. They get shit done. Not good shit, not all the time, but shit nonetheless.
Aaron Sorkin refused to watch a single episode after he left the show; saw the first 30 seconds of the first one made after he left and turned it off in rage, “these aren’t my characters.” He’s a real pain in the ass to work with, a perfectionist, so this is to be expected, but this means that he’s likely never going to give us a glimpse of this universe ever again. By the end of the series, it wasn’t his anymore, it had moved beyond him. He doesn’t want to pick up where someone else left off.
