Published Apr 06, 2025 • Last updated 17 hours ago • 4 minute readFrom left, Janel Moloney as Donna, Bradley Whitford as Josh and Rob Lowe as Sam perform in a scene from “The West Wing.” NBC handoutIt was a perfectly reasonable conversation. In the White House. About money and policy and international relationships.Yeah, it was fiction. Because being reasonable about anything, never mind money and policy and the like never happens in Trump’s subsidized government housing. Not now. Not ever.Recommended from Editorial RICK MacLEAN: Saying goodbye (to old books) is difficult RICK MacLEAN: Nothing ‘trumps’ letting politicians talk. Get it? THIS CONTENT IS RESERVED FOR SUBSCRIBERS ONLY.Subscribe now to access this story and more:Unlimited access to the website and appExclusive access to premium content, newsletters and podcastsFull access to the e-Edition app, an electronic replica of the print edition that you can share, download and comment onEnjoy insights and behind-the-scenes analysis from our award-winning journalistsSupport local journalists and the next generation of journalistsSUBSCRIBE TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES.Subscribe or sign in to your account to continue your reading experience.Unlimited access to the website and appExclusive access to premium content, newsletters and podcastsFull access to the e-Edition app, an electronic replica of the print edition that you can share, download and comment onEnjoy insights and behind-the-scenes analysis from our award-winning journalistsSupport local journalists and the next generation of journalistsRegister to unlock more articles.Create an account or sign in to continue your reading experience.Access additional stories every monthShare your thoughts and join the conversation in our commenting communityGet email updates from your favourite authorsSign In or Create an AccountorArticle contentInstead, this conversation was on a TV show that seems so wildly fictional today it might almost be fantasy. Or science fiction. Or science fiction fantasy.It was “The West Wing,” a show where exceptionally bright people, eager to do the very best they could for their country, debated issues, listened to each other and changed their minds when it was the right thing to do.See, told you. Fiction.Smart. Funny. Deadly seriousThe show was wildly popular, lasting seven seasons and 178 episodes. That’s forever in TV time. It was nominated for 26 Emmys – the TV equivalent of the Oscars, three Golden Globes – given for excellence in storytelling, and two Peabody awards – for TV work considered powerful and enlightening.It was smart. It was funny. And it was deadly serious.So when, in episode 19 of season 2, called “Bad Moon Rising,” they decided to talk about why one nation decides to help another, instead of say considering its neighbours and allies suckers who can be blackmailed with tariffs, it started with Donna Moss.Article contentShe wanted to know why her boss, senior White House official Josh Lyman, supported a plan to rescue the Mexican economy when it faced a plunging peso and a $30-billion loan payment it couldn’t pay. She told him he had a phone message from Frank Kelly.“Who’s he,” said Josh.“He’s a textiles worker in South Carolina making $12.17 an hour with no health insurance. His two kids go to public school. The school’s fine, but they had to cut art and music for budget reasons and Frank’s 10-year-old is just nuts about the trumpet.“So the mom does telemarketing at night after the kids have gone to bed to pay for lessons and to rent an instrument. Not that art and music are important or that any of us had any fun or met friends doing it.“Frank obeys the law and pays his bills. He also pays taxes, and he called to thank you for sending his money to Mexico.”Us versus themGet it. It’s MAGA, “Make America great again” by not helping your neighbours, just yourself. Every time. And there are lots of “us” who need help, so too bad about “them.”Article contentIt’s also “Canada first – now and always.” Yeah, I think that’s also an election slogan getting some play in the run-up to our federal election later this month.Josh’s answer – summed up briefly – is life is way more complicated than an election slogan.“Why don’t you call him back and remind him that the Mexican consumers that buy his textiles can’t afford to buy them anymore. Frank will be laid off. Which isn’t a problem. There are plenty of jobs out there for a 48-year-old textile worker, just as long as he’s trained in high-tech computers or medical research.”Donna wasn’t having it.“Oh, like the $30-billion is going to make it into the pocket of Mexican consumers.”Josh was ready for her.“Eventually it does. And we’re not giving them the money. We’re giving them our credit card and paying the bill. It’s a loan. We did the same thing six years ago. The loan was paid back ahead of schedule.”Then he told her she’d received a call too, from Europe in 1940.“It sounds to me from what they said on the phone that France, Austria and England were getting absolutely pounded by the Germans, with no end in sight,” he said.Article content“I think they’re just being hysterical. This son of a customs agent with the Charlie Chaplin mustache ain’t going anywhere.”Beacon of democracyJosh was talking about the decision – by the United States – to loan arms to Russia and Britain so they could keep fighting the Second World War against the Nazis.“With the understanding they’d pay us back when the war is over.”There’s a reason powerful countries like the U.S. – which has spent decades telling the world it is the shining light on the hill, a beacon of democracy the rest of the world can look to – help those around them, Josh said.“If your neighbour’s house is on fire, you don’t haggle over the price of your garden hose. Frank Kelly in South Carolina wouldn’t. There are too many things in the world we can’t do. Mexico’s on fire.“Why help them? Because we can.”Donna smiled. She could live with that. See what I mean? Science fiction fantasy. At least for now.Rick MacLean is retired as an instructor in the journalism program at Holland College.Article content
RICK MacLEAN: Great nations lead. Our neighbour isn’t
