President Bartlet

NBC's "The West Wing" -- God, it makes me feel like a poor kid staring into a toy shop window. President Bartlet and his staff, while far from perfect, actually try to uphold the principals they believe in, and respect the power they have been given. There may be anger and strife occasionally, and the characters often clash on specific issues, but cynicism is something you rarely find there. It's like the America I dreamed of living in exists there on the other side of the glass tube.

I compare it with the America I actually live in. It seems to me that the goal of this administration is to get away with whatever they can. There is so much psychic energy devoted to "spin" and denial. All they seem to do in the "real" West Wing is try and tell us that what we're seeing in front of our eyes really isn't true, or to tell us only the half of the story they want us to hear. Like the plan to try and put caps on medical lawsuit awards -- they tell us that good doctors can't practice good medicine because of fear of debilitating lawsuits. They say that insurance costs are too high for these poor doctors. Well, in the first place, I can't imagine any Doctor actually refusing to do a procedure necessary to save someone's life -- it's happening every second in Emergency Rooms all over America. To BECOME a Doctor requires taking an oath that you will do whatever you can. As far as insurance costs, it seems like plenty of Doctors still have enough left over to buy their BMW's -- I'm not seeing a lot of news reports about Doctors forced to go on Public Assistance. On the other hand, (and this is the part you won't see discussed on television) when a Doctor DOES screw up, a formerly healthy person can lose their sight, their hearing, an arm or even become dependent on machines to stay alive -- and that's for the rest of their lives, kids. Often now unable to work, and therefore unable to afford the medical insurance they now require, they find themselves in the scariest of Catch 22's. Is it fair that they will now only be able to get $50,000 or so? Seems a cheap price for someone's life...

But no -- instead we must focus on helping the doctors and protecting the pharmaceutical companies that charge obscene prices for drugs people need. "But the research is so expensive!" the companies cry. Fine. There are plenty of drugs out there that you can charge big bucks for -- Viagra for example. Although it may impact the "quality of life" no one dies because they can't get their Viagra. I have no problem with you charging an arm and a leg for that, but of course that'll never happen -- Viagra is the drug of choice for old, rich, white guys and that's sacred. But the drugs that people need to live -- diabetics, asthmatics, people with heart disease or AIDS -- how can you justify charging someone without insurance well over $100 a month per drug? How can you make sick or elderly people have to choose between being able to eat and being able to afford their medications? I know -- keeping sick people poor and hungry helps to keep them silent as well. But really -- how do you sleep at night? Yes, I agree that there are definite issues with health care in this country that require our immediate attention -- unfortunately, they aren't the issues that the real West Wing cares about -- more important to that crowd is ensuring that Plastic Surgeons will still be able to afford their Lexus Payments.

President Bartlett, we need you!