"The West Wing" seems to be a "soap opera" that gives the questionable impression that all these very smart (at least in their own minds) people run around playing this game of politics by shooting questions at each other all day long. Unfortunately, it now seems better than a lot of other stuff on TV, however that is not a good thing.
Since this is another one sided version of politics as glamorous, power brokering, with everything working itself out after a lot of twists and turns. The problem is that the view of the White House and Washington is pretty short sighted and there is no real view of the high level of blatant corruption that has existed in Congress since at least the 1960s with LBJ's friends and lobbyists having offices literally in Congressional members offices in the Capitol complex, and President being a puppet instead of a snappy decision maker.
This is an attempt to feed the public a theatrical version of politics that matches their guess of how administrations run. If you believe that the President is allowed to make decisions based on his own whims, it is time to wake up and realize that shows like "The West Wing" and "K Street" are jokes, and next to nothing based on the realistic process. However, with the political TV news shows we have, it is understandable, if discouraging, that many people will buy into this farce as realistic, even some form of documentary.
Since this is another one sided version of politics as glamorous, power brokering, with everything working itself out after a lot of twists and turns. The problem is that the view of the White House and Washington is pretty short sighted and there is no real view of the high level of blatant corruption that has existed in Congress since at least the 1960s with LBJ's friends and lobbyists having offices literally in Congressional members offices in the Capitol complex, and President being a puppet instead of a snappy decision maker.
This is an attempt to feed the public a theatrical version of politics that matches their guess of how administrations run. If you believe that the President is allowed to make decisions based on his own whims, it is time to wake up and realize that shows like "The West Wing" and "K Street" are jokes, and next to nothing based on the realistic process. However, with the political TV news shows we have, it is understandable, if discouraging, that many people will buy into this farce as realistic, even some form of documentary.