Honestly, so much of the modern American left’s contempt for liberalism’s reverence for civic rituals can be traced back to the toxic influence of Aaron Sorkin.

There’s a nuanced point to be made about how the left’s contempt for liberalism’s reverence for civic ritualism too often bleeds into contempt for civic ritualism itself... and how Sorkin is as much a symptom as a cause.

As for everybody who says “hey, get over it, it’s just a TV show,” I assure you that Yglesias doesn’t usually retweet my thoughts on academic history.

THE WEST WING clearly provoked all kinds of strong reactions across the left-liberal spectrum. https://twitter.com/mattyglesias/status/1309308244624576513?s=20

I mean, I'm not a Debord scholar -- and I am by no means the first to make this point -- but it's pretty clear that THE WEST WING, and Sorkin's work more broadly, provokes people *because* it blends the line between entertainment, liberal political fantasies, and reality.

And it's that last point -- the tangible, albeit hard to define, impact on REALITY -- that is a big reason we're still talking about it after all this time.

Nobody talks about DAVE, or PRIMARY COLORS, or BULWORTH, or BOB ROBERTS, or HEAD OF STATE, or any of a dozen other forgettable political movies from the '90s and early '00s in quite the same way as THE WEST WING.

Related to this point, might also be worth thinking through how the current president of the United States got to that position BECAUSE HE STARRED IN A FUCKING TV SHOW THAT AIRED ON THE SAME NETWORK AS THE WEST WING IN 2004. https://twitter.com/neva9257/status/1309313701858639874?s=20

It's really fucking crazy, when you think about it.

THE WEST WING aired on Wednesday nights at 9:00pm Eastern on NBC in 2004.

THE APPRENTICE aired on Thursday nights on NBC in the same time slot.