The Gospel According to William Jefferson Smith, Senator
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The Story: You can't make these things up. Yes, Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy* (R-CA) tried to influence the Tea Party members of the Republican party to support John Boehner's debt ceiling plan by showing them that scene from The Town, that demonstrates "no questions asked" loyalty between two bank-robbers, one of them a sadistic sociopath. Forget about the "sadistic sociopath" stuff, and forget that they're bank-robbers—we'll let that slide (they're Congressmen, after all, so it's not much of a stretch). "No questions asked" loyalty is not the gospel I want a U.S. Congressman to preach. It implies blind acceptance and no thinking allowed. It also implies "lock-step" troop gathering, and that always makes me nervous. There's only a split-second difference in cadence between "lock-step" and "goose-step."
McCarthy can be forgiven, I think. He is from California, and movies are one of their biggest exports (that and avocados). But, there's always a problem when politicians and movies mix. Sometimes the message gets a little ... confused. Patton inspired Nixon to invade Cambodia during the Viet Nam war. Our Hollywood President, Ronald Reagan, evoked scenes from movies as if they were reality. And when one Republican Presidential candidate was asked if there were any movies he'd recommend seeing, he mentioned The Cider House Rules, no doubt because he'd heard from a pro-life group that it was about an abortionist who saved kids, but hadn't seen it to know that it was also about incest and child abuse. So much for "family values."
Now, were it me...instead of Congressman McCarthy...I would have slipped another scene from another movie to inspire his fellows...and I wouldn't even have to splurge on the Kool-Aid they no doubt served at the event. It's this scene from Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, which is still as fresh and pertinent as it was when it was made in 1939—I remember seeing it for the first time after the Watergate Scandal broke and was immediately struck by how the issues of Government and corruption, influence peddling and opinion generation were dealt with in such a forthright and direct manner and how it spoke just as clearly nearly forty years later. It also deals with "basic truths" that are the cornerstones on which the country was based, and always seem to get lost in competing ideologies and short-term fixes. And "the rules." I've always liked how Smith has to go through the torturous process to learn the rules of Order in the Senate, which can obscure the one basic rule that governs civility and public service. It's mentioned in this scene (although most people seem to forget it outside of a catechism class).
We started this series of "Gospels" from movies on July 4th, supplanting a scene from ...Smith... that we usually toss up here. It's doubly important...given the insanity that this country has just gone through...to end it with another one.
The Set-Up: Jefferson Smith (James Stewart) is a political appointment to a seat for a Senator who has died in office. The son of the friend of the state's other Senator, Paine (Claude Rains), Smith's appointment is approved by the political machine of that state and allowed to go through without challenge. But, conflicts arise when Smith offers a bill to raise funds for a boy's camp on the site of a public works project (buried in an appropriations bill) that will make a lot of money for the Machine (run by Taylor, played by Edward Arnold) and its cronies. Confronted with Smith's opposing bill, Taylor, with the other Senator's aid, begins a smear campaign to run Smith out of office, and Smith (with the help of Paine's sympathetic aide, Jean Arthur) takes the floor of the Senate to filibuster the bill and talk directly to the people of his State, far removed from the echo-chamber of Washington politics. That's where we are. We'll let The Press take the summary from here.
Action!
H. V. KALTENBORN is seen again, broadcasting.
In the SENATE PRESS GALLERY, Saunders and Diz are seen.
DIZ They're listening to him. Anything might happen now.
In the PRESS GALLERY:
On the FLOOR again:
PAINE Mr. President...
(There is none)
You may proceed, Senator.
A MAN Public opinion made to order.
DIZ Yeah, Taylor made.
SENATOR PAINE walks down and points to the baskets.
JEFFERSON has gone wearily to the baskets. He seizes handfulls
of telegrams at random and glances at them. He sags in despair, almost falling.
forward to the floor.
Mr. Smith Goes to Washington
Words Sidney Buchman
Pictures by Joseph Walker and Frank Capra
Mr. Smith Goes To Washington is available on Sony Home Video.
Send one to your representative.
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