NBC's White House drama The West Wing, created by self-proclaimed liberal Democrat and enfant terrible Aaron Sorkin, debuted last week. The central conflict of the first episode revolved around the Harold Ickes character (played by Brad Whitford), who belittles the faith of a religious pundit on a Capital Gang-like show. Various senior staff come to him concerned that the president will have him fired to placate religious conservatives. Of course, they all agree that he was right in principle, but as a political matter the religious nuts are useful to the president. The chief of staff explains, "We need these people."
So a group of religious leaders is invited to the White House for a conversation about family values. Barely 30 seconds into the meeting it turns out that the Christians are -- surprise! -- vicious, manipulative anti-Semites. The dialogue begins to break down when suddenly the president (Martin Sheen) strides into the room and takes control. With gumption spilling out of his ears, the POTUS tells off the bigots: His adolescent daughter just received a death threat in the mail from a Christian group, and if these people will be so kind as to get the hell out of his White House he'd be much obliged because he isn't about to talk with them about anything. Cue the inspirational music.
Unsurprisingly, the one thing the New York Times found to like was that the show "tackles the religious right with a vehemence rare in politics or entertainment." Yeah, it's a rare thing when Hollywood takes on the Christian right. What courage! What artistic novelty!
Conservative Christians, often mocked as paranoid, may soon make that old counterculture bumper sticker their own: Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean they're not out to get you.