George Packer writes about the United States Senate, as portrayed in the 1962 Otto Preminger film “Advise and Consent”:
The Senate of “Advise and Consent” is corrupt to the core. There are no statesmen, only petty backstabbers who never forget a slight, are willing to sell out almost any principle when it’s convenient, and are chiefly driven by the aggrandizement of their own power. The only senator of whom this isn’t true is no saint, and eventually he’s driven by scandal to commit suicide. The others use the levers of Senate authority as instruments of bribery and blackmail, to cut under-the-table deals, punish their enemies, and advance the President’s nominee out of sycophancy or undermine him out of spite. The President is a stubborn chain-smoker, and the Vice-President, openly despised by the President, is such a loser that he flies commercial with no Secret Service. “Advise and Consent” is one of those rare films with no particular heroes or villains, like a mob movie that has you enjoying the mobsters’ turns of phrase and skill in murder while hoping that all of them get it in the end. Not exactly a picture to inspire nostalgia.
Packer goes on to explain that for all of its flaws and bizarre idiosyncrancies, this is a Senate that works. The senators in “Advise and Consent” are glorified frat boys, whose foremost commitment is to “the institution.” And its this clubbiness and insularity that, to Packer’s mind, “ensures a kind of functionality.”
I don’t think there are any political lessons to be drawn from Packer’s piece, but it is definitely a pleasure to read (especially the last sentence), as well as a nice way to start your morning.
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