Aaron Sorkin says he’s often asked whether The West Wing could work today. His answer, for the most part, is yes: his present-day depiction of the White House, like the one he created 25 years ago, would still be idealistic and still feel completely aspirational. But there is one element from his Emmy-winning series that viewers couldn’t vibe with today, Sorkin told the audience Saturday during a mini-cast reunion of The West Wing : the idea that reasonable Republicans work on Capitol Hill.
“I don’t want to get a rumble started or anything like that,” Sorkin told the crowd at the Skirball Center event, which was meant to celebrate the Aug. 13 release of the book What’s Next: A Backstage Pass to The West Wing by show stars Melissa Fitzgerald and Mary McCormack . “This is simply what would be different.
I’m afraid to say that right now, and maybe things will different a year from now or two years from now. But right now, it would be implausible that the opposition party, that the Republican Party, was reasonable. People would watch that and it would be unfamiliar to them as the country they live in.
On the show, while the Republicans were the opposition, they were reasonable.” Sorkin added that when it comes to typical depictions of politicians in pop culture, “leaders are either portrayed as Machiavellian or as dolts, right? It’s either House of Cards or Veep. The idea behind The West Wing was, they were as competent and dedicated as the doctors and nurse.