In God We Trust - TWW S6E20

 

Original airdate: March 23, 2005

Written by: Lawrence O'Donnell (12)

Directed by: Christopher Misiano (23)

Synopsis

• Questions of the separation of church and state cast a shadow over Senator Vinick as he locks in the Republican nomination, amid questions over his Vice Presidential choice and his own churchgoing. A bill to raise the debt ceiling and forestall an economic crisis is caught up in political wrangling over the minimum wage.
  

"If you demand expressions of religious faith from politicians you are just begging to be lied to." 

Religion and government have been inextricably linked since, well, religion and government have existed. There's just an irresistible urge to take the instilled faith-based rules-following of religion and apply it directly to governing your subjects ... and it's been a staple of human history from the beginning. Thanks to Enlightenment thinkers like Thomas Jefferson, the United States began with a rather bold approach - to separate church and state, to erect a "wall" of sorts between religion and government. The First Amendment, saying "Congress shall make no law" establishing any religion or restricting freedom to exercise one's religious rights, was groundbreaking in many ways. 

 

It's a good idea, especially for a diverse, growing nation with new citizens arriving from across the globe, all with different religions and different creeds and different beliefs. A government of such a nation should be established on evenhanded laws and rules that apply to all such citizens, and not restrict those citizens to have to live under the rules of one particular religion. In practice, though, it's been a challenge for American politicians to stick to that approach. The siren song of practicing one's Christianity through political means (and let's face it, it's almost always Christianity) is oftentimes too attractive to deny, and that's not even including the entry of pastors and reverends and other religious figures into politics themselves. It's hard for a preacher to run for office and then not, you know, continue to preach and try to use their newfound government power to enforce those religious precepts they have been urging their congregations to follow!

This is a conflict that's been with our nation from the beginning, the conflict between the "rightness" of religion and the messy freedoms of American life, and the political lure for religious leaders to use government to dictate that "rightness" to everyone, whether or not they actually follow that specific religion. It's always been a factor in the political landscape, sometimes coming to the forefront, sometimes pushed into the background - and we currently see it forced full front-and-center, with issues like abortion, banning certain books in schools, providing public funds for private religious schools, this month in particular being outraged about a Satanic Temple display sharing space with a Christian Christmas display in the rotunda of the Iowa Capitol, and denying the very humanity and personhood of those some don't agree with (LGBTQ students, for example). Even with the First Amendment and Jefferson's "wall of separation between the church and state," the United States can't seem to agree on that being the correct approach, and oftentimes wants to ignore those Enlightenment principles in order to impose religious ones.

All of that makes this episode not only ever-timely, but incredibly refreshing. Senator Arnie Vinick, a solid Republican conservative who has won the party's nomination for President in the upcoming 2006 election, is faced with somewhat of a dilemma - betray his own personal beliefs in order to pander to the anti-abortion right in the Republican base, and make a show of religion and churchgoing to get those votes, or stand strong on his own moral foundation, even if it doesn't align with the general religiosity of the party. He stays true to his own beliefs in this episode, in this West Wing universe, and we are meant to approve and appreciate his position - unfortunately, this type of stance has become vanishingly rare in today's politics. Which is what makes this refreshing, it's a sign of what could be, instead of what we are living through.

There's two tracks (well, three, kind of, but the third is linked to the other two) in this episode. We are closing in on the end of the season and the end of the primary campaign - in fact, the New Jersey primary that opens the episode feels like the final preliminary contest. While Vinick has locked up the Republican nomination, the Democrats are still a mess, with nobody earning enough delegates to ensure the bid going into the national convention in just a few weeks.

The big California win by Matt Santos that we saw in La Palabra lit a fire under his campaign, and with his narrow win in New Jersey he's fewer than a hundred delegates behind the frontrunner, Vice President Bob Russell. The other contender, former Vice President John Hoynes, cratered after his latest sex scandal blew up (also in La Palabra) and he's a distant third ... but with no one close to the 2162 delegates necessary, a lot of things can happen.

Toby in particular is worried and frantic about how much in disarray the Democrats appear to be, not even able to settle on a candidate for President (and we've seen in the past how little he thinks of Santos). In discussions with President Bartlet it's decided the President needs to step forward and show the country that the Democrats are currently head of the executive branch, and still know how to run the country - so he calls Santos and Russell in to the Oval Office for a photo op.

Toby: "You going to try to broker a deal between these guys?"

President: "Eh, not ready for that. Just a photo op. And remind people that we still know a little something about running the country."

Toby: "Maybe a little less about running a party." 

Once the press is gone, Bartlet lays down the law to the two candidates: no going negative, no attacks on each other, stay positive and stay focused on winning the general election, whichever of the two it might be.

 

In the background of all this is the debt ceiling, a limit which the government is fast approaching and needs raised before defaulting on its loans and causing a worldwide financial panic. Democrats float the idea of adding an amendment increasing the minimum wage to the debt ceiling bill, forcing the Republicans to vote to raise the wage or else crash the economy.

Charlie (on the debt ceiling bill): "It's a one-sentence bill. Just changes the seven to an eight."

Annabeth: "Trillion."

Toby (chuckling): "Yeah, trillion ..."

Annabeth: "Why does Treasury want the President to read over a 20-page memo on a one-sentence bill?"

Toby: "Well, they like to run the worst-case scenario."

Annabeth: "In case it doesn't pass?"

Toby: "Yeah, you know, the immediate collapse of the U.S. economy, followed by Japan sinking into the sea, followed by a worldwide depression the likes of which no mortal can imagine ... followed by week two."

The big focus of the episode, though, and the real good stuff inside, is all Vinick. Even with the Democrats fighting over their nomination and the debt ceiling crisis, this is a very Vinick-centric episode, and it earned Alan Alda an Emmy nomination.

With Vinick's clinching of the nomination, his immediate attention turns to picking a running mate. His main challenger in the primaries, Reverend Don Butler, is a staunch pro-life religious leader ... while his political positions don't line up that well with Vinick (a conservative, true, but a California conservative who still supports some abortion rights), Vinick's advisers tell him Butler as the VP candidate will bring the right wing of the party fully onboard with Vinick's candidacy and ensure a win in November.

Vinick is reluctant, but open minded. He knows Butler can lock up the White House for the Republicans, but he really wants to reach the independents and the more conservative Democrats, too. A surprising visit by Democratic campaign operative Bruno Gianelli (who ran Bartlet's 2002 campaign, remember) reinforces Vinick's own feelings on the situation.

Bruno (to Vinick): "Look - they don't know it yet, you are the best thing to ever happen to them. You're moving the Republicans away from the right wing. You're not saying Democrats are not patriotic; you're just saying that your approach is better than theirs. You are making politics a fair fight again. [...] I have spent the last twenty years ripping this country apart. Finding wedge issues to separate the voters. You don't have to do that to win. Not this time. You do this right, you can do a lot more than win. You can stop using politics to divide this country. You can show us how much we agree, instead of how much we disagree. You can put this country back together."

There's another very good option for VP, West Virginia governor Ray Sullivan, but he's not a pastor and not a guarantee to bring the far right into the fold in November. So when Butler comes to visit, Vinick can't resist the knowledge he would ensure the win, and he starts to offer him a spot on the ticket ... until Butler stops him.

It's a turn of events for us, the viewer ... we've been led to think of Vinick as someone solid in his beliefs, not a political flip-flopper, but suddenly we see he's willing to cave on some of his principles to get what he wants. It's Butler who stands firm and refuses to compromise, Butler who tells Vinick he can't serve alongside someone who supports abortion rights at all. Quite the reversal for us.

Then as Butler leaves Vinick's office, a reporter asked a different type of question - will he pray for Vinick to change his mind on abortion? Caught by surprise, Butler says yes, and then also says he'd welcome Vinick to come to his church to pray any time he wants to.

And therein lies the rub. Vinick, already viewed with suspicion by the religious right for his abortion stance, is now being publicly challenged to go to church, to make his Sunday morning religious practice a show for the news and for those religious voters. His staffers are generally in favor of doing that, of compromising yet again to fish for votes. But Sheila's hallway conversation with Bruno helps her see that's not the way to go - you can't try to run a political game on Rev. Butler to get his endorsement, he's not actually a politician (and as we saw, he's more certain of his noncompromising moral stance than Vinick is).

Senator Vinick's reasoning for not going to church is a deeply personal one. As his wife grew ill, he stayed home to care for her; after she died, he didn't want to go back to the church where her funeral was held (and there's an underlying unspoken message about losing some of his faith when that faith couldn't save his wife). Even so, out of the mouth of Sheila's young daughter comes the question that this churchgoing issue is going to bring to the forefront:

"Do you believe in God?"

Vinick doesn't really have a good answer for her (even though she says it's okay, one of her friends doesn't believe in God and she's cool).

Anyway, with Butler out the obvious choice is Governor Sullivan, and he's happy to be onboard, saying "I go to church enough for the both of us." But Butler's invitation continues to loom over the campaign like a giant shadow, trapping Vinick in a moral conundrum.

Then comes another invitation, one from the President himself. Vinick is summoned to the White House to try to work out a deal on the debt ceiling bill, as the midnight deadline draws near. The two political titans square off, with stern looks and strong words (in the DVD commentary writer Lawrence O'Donnell and director Christopher Misiano recall how difficult it was to get that tone on camera - Alda and Martin Sheen liked each other so much they had too much fun and too much camaraderie to get that tension onscreen). But Vinick has an offer, as long as he can get what he wants out of it - he'll split the minimum wage amendment off the debt ceiling bill, pass the debt ceiling increase, then get the minimum wage bill passed separately:

President: "What do you want from me?"

Vinick: "I announce the deal."

President: "I know a few Democratic candidates for President who wouldn't be happy watching you take credit for this."

Vinick: "Well, then, then let them pass the debt ceiling for you and get you the minimum wage increase."

Since that didn't take long, Vinick says he'll stick around so it looks like they're really hammering out a deal. And maybe, while they wait, could he have some ice cream?

Hence one of the memorable scenes in West Wing history. President Bartlet and Senator Vinick, in the back of the White House kitchen, hauling out five-gallon buckets of ice cream and talking about religion. 

 

(While it's a great scene, think of the health violations here, as both these guys dig into multiple containers of ice cream with their spoons, contaminating who knows how many gallons of the stuff.)

 

It's a tremendously well-written scene, with the staunch Catholic Bartlet and the somewhat agnostic Vinick really getting pretty deep into religion and politics and how they're connected and why they shouldn't be. This talk really becomes a turning point for Vinick, even as we get yet another story about why he doesn't go to church - this time he talks about a collectors' edition of the King James Bible he received as a gift, and how once he started reading it he really couldn't believe everything that was in there. And some of this reminds us of the verbal beatdown President Bartlet gave Dr. Jenna Jacobs in The Midterms.

Vinick: "It was a thrill just to hold it. Then I read it."

President: "You can't take it literally."

Vinick: "That's what my priest friends kept telling me. But the more I read it, the less I could believe. I could not believe there was a God who said the penalty for working on the Sabbath was death. I couldn't believe there was a God who said the penalty for adultery was death."

President: "I'm more of a New Testament man myself."

Vinick: "I couldn't believe that there was a God who had no penalty for slavery. The Bible has no problem with slavery at all. Lincoln could have used a little help from the Bible."

The President leaves Vinick with a little tidbit of advice that really gets to the essence of religion and politics, particularly the Presidency:

President: "The only thing you can pray for in this job is strength to get through the day. You can try coffee if you want, but prayer works better for me."

 

Vinick goes out on the White House lawn, to announce the deals on the debt ceiling and the minimum wage. When a reporter asks about Rev. Butler's invitation yet again, he first sticks to the simple, noncontroversial, noncommital response his staff told him to use:

Vinick: "I fully respect Reverend Butler's position. I mean, I appreciate his invitation, and, uh ..."

There's a pause. His talk with President Bartlet has spurred him to stick with his own moral position, however he arrived there - and to defend everyone's right to practice religion, or not, in their own way, and to criticize any effort to make any kind of religious test a requirement for public service.

 

Vinick: "Look, I respect Reverend Butler. And I respect his church too much to use it for my own political purposes. And that's exactly what I'd be doing if I went down there this Sunday, because the truth is it would just be an act of political phoniness. I may be wrong, but I, I suspect our churches already have enough political phonies in them."

(Reporters shout out questions)

Vinick: "I don't see how we can have a separation of church and state in this government if you have to pass a religious test to get in this government. And I want to warn everyone in the press, and all the voters out there - if you demand expressions of religious faith from politicians you are just begging to be lied to. They won't all lie to you, but a lot of them will. And it will be the easiest lie they ever had to tell, to get your votes. So every day until the end of this campaign, I'll answer any question anyone has on government - but if you have, if you have a question on religion, please ... go to church. Thank you."

It is a fantastic statement defending the separation of church and state, clearly laying out where Senator Vinick stands, and defining where every American politician ought to be. They ought to be protecting the rights of all religions, all faiths, all beliefs (even nonbeliefs), not imposing some kind of Christian framework on questions of government action and enforcement of laws.

Too bad that didn't stick with us into 2023. Maybe we'll have Republican politicians like this back again, someday. Maybe.

 

Tales Of Interest!

- We have clearly moved on from the early spring/Super Tuesday primaries depicted in La Palabra and Ninety Miles Away and headed into the summer. We can tell because 1) the primaries are essentially finished with Senator Vinick locking up enough delegates to secure the Republican nomination and the Democrats having over 4200 delegates split between Vice President Russell, Representative Santos and former Vice President Hoynes, with only a few hundred left undecided; 2) the New Jersey primary is the hot topic, a primary which was held in June in 2004; 3) a couple of times it's mentioned the Democratic National Convention is a month away, a convention that always held in the summer (the 2004 DNC was in late July, the 2008 convention was in late August); 4) Sheila is trying to take her daughter to a baseball game (unknown whether they're talking about the Baltimore Orioles or the Washington Nationals, who played their first season in DC in 2005); and 5) most obviously, Charlie has grown facial hair since we last saw him talking about Leo's secret trip to Cuba. 

 

- The discussion in CJ's office about the debt limit - how Congress likes to hold off on a vote until the last minute, making legislators decide between voting for an increase or a government default, as well as preventing amendments - remains eerily accurate nearly 20 years later in our current world of 2023. Only thing is, unlike then, now we have Republican Congresspersons who are totally willing to let the government default while they make their own political points.

- Toby lists off the delegate count - Russell has 1677 delegates, Santos has 1599, and Hoynes is holding 956. With 2162 needed for the nomination and only a couple of hundred left undecided, there's still a lot to figure out.

- We see Sheila juggling her duties as Vinick's chief of staff and her responsibilities as a mother. There's a nice little moment in the limousine where she's on the phone with a staffer, but hands that phone over to Vinick as soon as one of her children calls with a homework question; then she retrieves the business phone from the Senator as soon as she's done. In the DVD commentary O'Donnell said his writing of Sheila's character was inspired by Sheila Burke, chief of staff for Senator Bob Dole and a friend of O'Donnell's when O'Donnell was working in the Senate - Burke had three children and also juggled family responsibilities with her work, much as we see here.

- There's something in Gail's fishbowl, but I can't quite tell what it is. It almost looks like a small jar of jelly or jam or something like that.

- If you pay attention during Vinick's talk to the press outside the White House, he answers a question on Reverend Butler with the exact four words (or is it five?) that Bob told him he needed to keep hammering to make the topic go away - "I fully respect Reverend Butler's position." Then, of course, he goes on to say a whole lot more, in one of the best little speeches in West Wing history.

 

- Alan Alda was nominated for an Emmy for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series for this episode and King Corn. The award went to William Shatner for his role as Denny Crane in Boston Legal.

- Why'd They Come Up With In God We Trust?

It's the official motto of the United States, and its usage there shines a light on Senator Vinick's reluctance to use religion or belief in God as a political tool, as so many of his advisors believe he should.

Quotes    

Leo (watching Vinick prepare to give his victory speech): "We've got nobody who can beat him."

-----

Sheila: "Now these energy types that are going to be there tonight, obviously they're going to want to hear how you're voting on the energy deregulation bill."

Vinick: "Well, it depends on what's in it when it comes out of committee."

Sheila: "Sends a very bad message to the big contributors if you vote against it."

Vinick: "Hey, if you can't drink their booze, take their money, and then vote against them you don't belong in this business."

----- 

Vinick: "How do we spin this thing?"

Bob: "You say that you fully respect Reverend Butler's position that he's not interested in VP. In fact, you just keep repeating those four words - 'fully respect Reverend Butler's position.'"

Staffer: "Five words."

----- 

Vinick (talking to Sheila about church): "I used to go with my wife every Sunday I was in California, and when she got too sick to go I stayed home with her. (pause) And after her funeral I didn't want to go into that church again."

-----

Vinick: "You think the voter really needs to know if I go to church?"

President: "I don't need to know, but then I'm not gonna vote for you anyway. (pause) It's not up to us to decide what the voters get to use in evaluating us."

Vinick: "A little odd, coming from someone who wasn't exactly completely open about his health."

President: "That was a big mistake."

Vinick: "Was it?"

Story threads, callbacks, and familiar faces (Hey, it's that guy!)

• This is the first we've heard of Reverend Don Butler (Don S. Davis, known for Stargate: SG-1, A League Of Their Own, Twin Peaks) as a candidate for the Republican nomination. We've previously known as candidates Glenallen Walken (Speaker of the House and acting President in Twenty Five through The Dogs Of War), and an "Allard" was mentioned in King Corn ... but that's about the only names we've heard mentioned before.

• Senate Majority Leader Robert Royce (H. Richard Greene) returns. He was first seen (as a member of the House, not the Senate) in On The Day Before, quickly became Senate Majority Leader by Jefferson Lives, and was most recently seen in Third-Day Story.

• Bruno Gianelli is back, and this time he's working for the Republican Vinick. Bruno (Ron Silver) famously was the top-notch campaign director hired by the Bartlet campaign to guide the reelection effort through the troubled waters of the MS disclosure, which he did quite successfully. Bruno's arc with the Bartlet campaign started with Manchester and he was last seen in Process Stories.

Bruno's party switch, and his professed reasons for supporting Vinick, are somewhat in opposition to his partisan, hit-back-harder approach he talked about in Gone Quiet.

Bruno: "Cause I am tired of working for candidates who make me think I should be embarrassed to believe what I believe, Sam. I'm tired of getting them elected. We all need some therapy, because somebody came along and said 'liberal' means soft on crime, soft on drugs, soft on defense, and we're gonna tax you back into the Stone Age because people shouldn't have to work if they don't want to. And instead of saying, 'Well, excuse me, you right-wing, reactionary, xenophobic, homophobic, anti-education, anti-choice, pro-gun, Leave It To Beaver trip back to the fifties,' we cowered in the corner and said, 'Please don't hurt me.' No more. I really don't care who's right, who's wrong. We're both right, we're both wrong. Let's have two parties, huh?"

That doesn't sound exactly like a guy who's going to celebrate a Senator Vinick who's "pro-business" and "anti-tax," even if that's where most of the voters are. Ron Silver, of course, was a proud right-wing conservative as a person, even as he could portray liberals in a convincing manner onscreen - I don't know if that had anything to do with Bruno's switch or not.

• Our introduction to Vinick's running mate, West Virginia Governor Ray Sullivan (Brett Cullen, known for Falcon Crest, The Dark Knight Rises, Narcos, Person Of Interest), and a religious figure in his own right. 

• Leo's remark to President Bartlet about Vinick - "We've got nobody who can beat him" - is a reminder of his conversation with Josh in In The Room.

Josh: "Republican who wins California wipes us out in the electoral college."

Leo: "Right."

Josh: "He's not getting the nomination."

Leo: "If he does ... we've got no one who can beat him."

• We hear CJ call the Secretary of the Treasury "Madam Secretary" - we saw Treasury Secretary Karen Browning on TV in Third-Day Story.
  

• Toby talking about the networks loving the disarray at the upcoming convention reminds us of The Black Vera Wang when Toby was furious at the networks planning to cut back their coverage to just one hour total for each convention.
  

• When Vinick's staff is talking about which Democrat they'd rather face one staffer says, "Santos didn't even win his own state." In La Palabra we saw how much staying in the race until the Texas primary meant to Matt ... this is the first we've heard that he didn't win there. That also reminds us that the Bartlet campaign decided on John Hoynes as VP in order to win the South, yet Hoynes didn't bring along his home state of Texas in the general election of 1998.
  

• Governor Baker is mentioned by Sheila as vouching for Bruno. Eric Baker, governor of Pennsylvania, was the presumptive frontrunner for the Democratic nomination before he announced he wasn't running for personal family reasons in In The Room.
  

• When President Bartlet verbally spanks both Santos and Russell in the Oval Office, telling them to lay off the personal attacks or he might endorse the other guy, we are reminded that in Freedonia Matt Santos specifically refused to go on the attack at all, and only conduct a positive campaign about his own policies.
  

• As they chow down on ice cream Vinick asks President Bartlet, "How's your health?" to which Jed replies, "Good days and bad days." Vinick later points out the fact that President Bartlet wasn't completely open about his health while running for President. This is a reference to President Bartlet's multiple sclerosis, which has been an underlying issue ever since we first found out about it in He Shall, From Time To Time ... and has been more evident since A Change Is Gonna Come.

DC location shots    

• There aren't any, but once again we see the Los Angeles City Hall standing in for what is supposed to be the US Capitol. The City Hall building has been used numerous times before, including Swiss Diplomacy, A Good Day and tons of other times.

• We also get an establishing shot of what is supposed to be the Senate Office Building containing Senator Vinick's office. Thing is, though, that's actually the headquarters of the Environmental Protection Agency on 12th Street NW, across the street from the Old Post Office and closer to the White House than it is to the Capitol. Funny thing, too, not only did they use that building as the place where Donna was giving her deposition in War Crimes ... but it's the exact same B-roll establishing shot, reused from four years prior.

This is from War Crimes

This is from this episode - obviously the exact same footage.

 

They Do Exist! It's The Real Person, or Thing    

• Stevie Wonder's "Sir Duke" is heard playing at the Vinick victory party.
  

• Reverend Butler is based on Republicans like Pat Buchanan or Reverend Pat Robertson who ran for president on far-right religious platforms in the late 1980s and early 1990s. That has continued for Republicans in more recent years with candidates like Mike Huckabee or Mike Pence, for example.
  

• CJ asks Toby if he's seen Broder's column. That would be David Broder of The Washington Post (we see a blurry front page of the Post held by CJ).

• Bruno mentions that a Republican presidential candidate has won 49 states twice in the last 30 years (which would be going back to 1976). In reality, it happened in 1972 (Richard Nixon won every state except Massachusetts [and the District of Columbia]) and in 1984 (Ronald Reagan won every state except Minnesota).
  

• We see some TV screens with MSNBC and C-SPAN2.

MSNBC

C-SPAN 2

• As the President and Vinick talk about the minimum wage bill, Vinick says California's minimum wage is "a buck fifty higher" than the federal minimum wage. In 2005 the federal minimum wage was $5.15 per hour, while California's was $6.75 - $1.60 higher. By the way, even that $5.15 wage in 2005 would equate to $8.29 in 2023 dollars, while the current federal minimum wage has been stuck at $7.25 since 2010.

• Vinick brings up Presidents Lincoln, Washington, Jefferson, and FDR as examples of candidates who didn't feel the need to answer health questions.
  

End credits freeze frame: The President and Senator Vinick meeting in the Oval Office.

Previous episode: Ninety Miles Away

Next episode: Things Fall Apart