As the American presidency takes a series of bizarre and disturbing turns, it would be only natural to look to the West Wing for comfort. The show was a ridiculous fantasia of American politics then, and is doubly so now, but the thinking goes that maybe the writer of such a fantasy might have some solid views about how to get there. So Aaron Sorkin nobly used his platform at the Writers Guild of America Awards on Sunday to deliver a speech that he credited as reminiscent of Network.
We humbly suggest that his speech was more reminiscent of the ridiculous monologue that Will McAvoy delivered in the opening episode of Sorkin's criminally terrible Newsroom. Sorkin largely delivered the opinion that perhaps living in large multicultural cities and having liberal values doesn't mean that one lives in a bubble. A solid point, and easy to agree with. Here's the actual meat of what he suggests we do. "So what can we do?" Sorkin said. "A lot actually. Because the most powerful delivery system ever invented for an idea is a story. The men and women in this room and one just like it in New York are America’s storytellers, and we come from everywhere." He has a really good point. The failure of Hillary Clinton's campaign was at least partially due to the fact that she never created the elbow room to tell a compelling story about America. "Stronger together" is a nice slogan but it doesn't really provide a plan for how to save manufacturing jobs, or help working class people still struggling after the economic rebound. And that's not just a Clinton problem; Obamacare has a host of issues, but a huge reason it struggled to win support was poor messaging about how the program actually helped people. So, yes, telling stories is vital. Donald Trump tells a disturbing and often counterfactual series of stories that are captivating. It doesn't hurt that he has a lot of personal charisma and is legitimately kind of funny. Make no mistake: His views are toxic and horrible, but he does an excellent job of presenting them. We don't subscribe to the notion that Sorkin is some kind of policy genius, or has his finger more on the pulse than does Meryl Streep, but he's right on here. Watch his speech below.
We humbly suggest that his speech was more reminiscent of the ridiculous monologue that Will McAvoy delivered in the opening episode of Sorkin's criminally terrible Newsroom. Sorkin largely delivered the opinion that perhaps living in large multicultural cities and having liberal values doesn't mean that one lives in a bubble. A solid point, and easy to agree with. Here's the actual meat of what he suggests we do. "So what can we do?" Sorkin said. "A lot actually. Because the most powerful delivery system ever invented for an idea is a story. The men and women in this room and one just like it in New York are America’s storytellers, and we come from everywhere." He has a really good point. The failure of Hillary Clinton's campaign was at least partially due to the fact that she never created the elbow room to tell a compelling story about America. "Stronger together" is a nice slogan but it doesn't really provide a plan for how to save manufacturing jobs, or help working class people still struggling after the economic rebound. And that's not just a Clinton problem; Obamacare has a host of issues, but a huge reason it struggled to win support was poor messaging about how the program actually helped people. So, yes, telling stories is vital. Donald Trump tells a disturbing and often counterfactual series of stories that are captivating. It doesn't hurt that he has a lot of personal charisma and is legitimately kind of funny. Make no mistake: His views are toxic and horrible, but he does an excellent job of presenting them. We don't subscribe to the notion that Sorkin is some kind of policy genius, or has his finger more on the pulse than does Meryl Streep, but he's right on here. Watch his speech below.