Liberal arrogance

For as much as I love The West Wing, I feel like I'm starting to become more and more sensitive to the political aspects of the show that I don't like. I'm sure it's my heightened sense of awareness due to the coming elections. In the episode we watched the other day Josh is frustrated with republicans who won't vote for a bill he needs to pass. Among the contrasts he lists between the two parties is that "one wants to save social security, the other wants to privatize it." I don't know anything about social security, but I find it a little antagonistic and elitist to suggest that in the republican mind the goal is not to save social security.

In another recent episode a female air force pilot was in trouble not because she was having an affair with an inferior (married) officer, but because she was ordered to stop and did not. Everyone on the show (except Leo) seemed to be disturbed by her predicament and thought it was wrong that she be punished. Toby's opinion is that we've invested a lot of money into teaching her how to fly a plane which she does very well, so he'd choose having her do that rather than caring who she sleeps with.  When Charlie is asked what he thinks he says, "I don't think you can reasonably ask someone to control who they fall in love with." The whole time I'm uncomfortable because I think the characters completely miss the point. First of all, I'm not a fan of the lack of moral conscience they all seem to have. I'd like to point out to Charlie that no one is asking anyone to control who they fall in love with, but that having an affair with a married man, and continuing to do so after being told to stop is two counts of wrong.

The underlying frustration that I'm continuing to find not just in the show but in the Democratic party in real life is their elitist attitude. I've experienced enough very conservative groups of people, and I think that whatever you might say about them, they believe, for the most part, that Democrats want what's best they just strongly disagree with how to accomplish it.  Democrats, on the other hand, seem to have a much haughtier view of themselves. The attitude that is portrayed is that Republicans are not merely ignorant but bad people.  They're not out to make things better but to win.  Democrats, in their own view, are simply better people. This attitude can be found on television and in the liberally biased print media (I read it in Time Magazine every week). I'm pretty much sick of it.