What I learned rewatching The West Wing in the Biden era

Aaron Sorkin's political drama is a telling relic of a bygone age

President Biden and Martin Sheen.
(Image credit: Illustrated | Getty Images, iStock, Alamy Stock Photo)

Aging is strange. I think of it like walking down a curved corridor that's mostly dark up ahead but brightly illuminated behind. For years, it's possible to look back and review where you've been, feeling like those past experiences are a part of the present world. But then at a certain point, some of those events and perceptions slip past the curve line and disappear from view. They are now history in a more decisive respect.

I'm a political junky, so it should surprise no one that I've watched The West Wing three times since its seven-season run concluded in 2006. (I didn't watch it in real time.) The first was during the closing years of the George W. Bush administration. The second was sometime in the middle of Barack Obama's two terms. And I started watching again right around the time Joe Biden was inaugurated.

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Damon Linker

Damon Linker is a senior correspondent at TheWeek.com. He is also a former contributing editor at The New Republic and the author of The Theocons and The Religious Test.