Let me tell you something: ultimately it is not the nuts that are the greatest threat to democracy. As history has shown us over, and over, and over again, the greatest threat to democracy is the unbridled power of the state’s over its citizens, which, by the way, that power is always unleashed in the name of preservation.
– Mandy Hampton (played by Moira Kelly) from “The State Dinner”, Season 1, Episode 7 of “The West Wing” (Original airdate of November 10, 1999), starting at the 20 minute 17 second mark on the 2nd DVD.
Two years before 9/11/2001.
Long before George W. Bush took office, a year before the nightmare 2000 election, and here we have a TV show trying to warn us about the true greatest threats to our democracy, our freedom.
Did we lose more freedom from 9/11 or from the excesses of power that came from the president afterwards?
Did we lose more standing in the world from what happened in 9/11 or from our reaction to it?
Come to think of it, President George W. Bush might benefit from a close watching of “A Proportional Response” (Season 1, Episode 3) wherein President Bartlet is warned about an overreaction in response to military action against those who attacked first, warning that what he wanted to do would be seen as the action of an inexperienced president.
This is why I inwardly roll my eyes every time someone boasts about not watching television.
Enemies (s01e08)
Mandy talking about a bill that the President had gotten passed which would “keep the banking lobby from getting whatever it wants, including total bank deregulation.” (Around the 38:24 mark.)
Original air-date? November 17, 1999.
The Short List (s01e09)
Before sending a judge (who did not believe that privacy was a constitutional right) to the Supreme Court, Sam Seaborn says:
Starting around 36:08
[The right to Privacy is] not just about abortion. It’s about the next 20 years. In the ’20s and ’30s it was the role of government, ’50s and ’60s it was Civil Rights. The next two decades are going to be privacy.
I’m talking about the Internet. I’m talking about cell phones, I’m talking about health records and who’s gay and who’s not.
And, moreover, in a country in a country born of the will to be free, what could be more fundamental than this?
Original air date November 24, 1999.
Anyone who doesn’t think Sorkin is a genius should have their head examined.
He Shall, from Time to Time… (s01e12)
Around 30:57
Barlet: “What does India want?” Lord John Marbury: “A computer industry. And for that they an infrastructure, and that is what you can give them.”
Original air date: January 12, 2000. Many Americans were still tinkering with their AOL accounts and their first email addresses.