The West Wing is the center of world power. Its inhabitants demonstrate good or ill, compassion or indifference, truth or fiction, power or impotence, take the moral high ground, or demonstrate obstructionism.
When Nathan Wyeth[i] designed the Oval Office, an appendage of the West Wing of the White House, he used the oval Blue Room as a design concept. It is unique and meant to intimidate those who enter.
The room is a symbol of our country, its power, and its influence in the world. Some call it a sacred space. During most of my growing-up years and since, the room’s occupants have treated it that way, demanding honor and respect for the presidency.
I find myself going back to that place often.
The West Wing is where I find solace and think about what could be. I especially favor the episodes that show the Oval Office with grown-ups acting in grown-up ways[ii].
I find, to the amusement of many of my friends, that one or two episodes each week quiet the nerves and provide a needed break from the fulminations that emanate from this sacred inner sanctum. The play is better than reality.
Presidents get the blame for what goes wrong during their tenure and they get credit for what goes well, whether the result is because of their policies or those of past administrations. Given that rule of thumb, President Trump gets credit for one of the lowest unemployment rates in decades, for the stock market at an all-time high, for putting two nominees on the Supreme Court, and for building a solid base of supporters. The mounting deficit will be a negative in a few months, the result of a massive tax cut. He maintains a base of supporters that is strong if not very large. He is reducing regulations in spite of science that says he should not. The country is divided on his priorities. My observation is that the Oval Office changed past Presidents. Simply walking into the room would seem to overwhelm them with the enormous responsibility they shouldered.
Politics is a bloody contact sport. Campaigns are brutal. Once elected to the office of the President of the United States, however, people expect the President, difficult as it may be, to become “presidential.” It is hard to define “presidential” but you know it when you see it. I have not seen in lately, especially in the Oval Office. Today, the sacred space is treated like a TV set. Actors and reality show-people parade in and out for sound-bite moments; the stage is set for Executive-Order signings and photo ops.
Did other presidents use the Oval Office as a stage? Yes, but …
I wish our President would watch a couple of episodes of West Wing each week. It could change his perception of the presidency and might even change how he behaves in those sacred spaces.
