Fools Wanted: A Lesson from ‘Mr. Smith Goes to Washington’
by John P. HanlonIn the 1939 classic film “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington,” the newly-appointed Senator Jefferson Smith is told by his secretary how important “fools” can be in Washington D.C. Her support and admiration for fools is not an endorsement of sending uneducated persons to our nation’s capital. Fools, she believes, include honorable people who have faith in their convictions against political opposition and harsh criticism. The movie “Mr. Smith” and its message about “fools” serve as a reminder about what public service is really about and what integrity really means.
Even though I have lived in the D.C. area for a little less than three years, I recently watched “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington” for the first time. The movie revolves around an appointed Senator who brings his hopefulness and his integrity to Washington D.C. James Stewart plays Mr. Smith, the head of a boy’s organization, who is surprisingly given a chance to serve his country in the United States Senate. He is a Governor’s political appointee who some believe will cave to political pressure and make his voting decisions on the advice of a corrupt but highly-respected Senate colleague. Mr. Smith refuses to accommodate that fellow Senator and the demands of the political machine in his state that fights against him and he eventually loses confidence in the entire political system.
When Smith recognizes how blatantly corrupt some politicians are, he heads to the Lincoln Memorial planning to leave the nation’s capital after the media and his fellow Senators have disgraced his name. His secretary, Clarissa Saunders, meets him there and she notes the following about Senator Paine and Jim Taylor, two of Smith’s high-profile critics:
Your friend Mr. Lincoln had his Taylors and Paines. So did every other man who ever tried to lift his thought up off the ground. Odds against them did not stop those men. They were fools that way. All the good that ever came into this world came from fools with faith like that.
After that part of the movie, Mr. Smith is given a choice. He can return to his home state and try to repair the damage to his reputation that was caused by the accusations lobbed at him or he can return to the Senate and fight for his honor. Mr. Smith decides to return to the Senate, where he mounts a filibuster to get his message out to the people of his state.
Unsurprisingly, Mr. Smith, an icon of idealism and integrity, has become a paradigm that politicians enjoy being compared to. Several months ago, Liza Mundy from the Washington Post, wrote a piece about the film and noted the importance of the movie. “Its influence,” she wrote, “is rooted in the idea that a virtuous innocent can take on a rotten political system — and win.” Mundy later wrote that “perhaps at no time has the film been invoked as often as during the 2008 presidential election, a race in which everybody was trying to claim the outsider status that Smith embodies.” Bundy noted in her piece that depending on your political persuasion, both President Obama and former Governor Sarah Palin can and have been compared to Mr. Smith.
If you took a broader perspective today of Mr. Smith and viewed him as an advocate for the people over the forces of politics as usual, you would see how such “fools” are necessary in the nation’s capital these days and how critics often go after such “fools.” In Washington D.C., the amount of money given to a state or a district in earmarks can be seen as a major political plus while people who are fiscally conservative can be criticized for not soliciting or accepting more money from the federal government. Is it a “fool” who wants to fight for fiscal responsibility when our deficit is so high? On the matter of health care, is it foolish for our elected leaders to take their time and meticulously debate reform that will affect millions of Americans, like some elected leaders like Senator McConnell want to do. Is it a “fool” who wants health-care reform to be debated and discussed thoroughly while others want to push through the legislation quickly? On the same subject, is it “foolish” to ask our public officials to read this important piece of legislation before they push it through? Is it “foolish” to want to know what is actually in this massive health care bill before it becomes law?
With such questions about “foolishness,” some would likely ask the obvious question: do we have Mr. Smiths in Washington today? I believe that we do have such people in our capital. We have Mr. Smiths in Washington who fight for accountability and transparency and who fight for their ideals and their values over their party’s principles.
For one, I am reminded of Senator Joseph Lieberman of Connecticut. In 2000, Democratic Senator Lieberman represented his party as nominee for vice president but six years later, he lost the primary in his own state. Believing that the voters of both parties and many independents would support him, Lieberman ran and won as an independent and he has deserved that title in the Senate. Although he still supports the Democrats on a lot of issues, Lieberman supported John McCain in last year’s election much to his own detriment, and he has recently opposed parts of liberal health care reform, once again facing critics from within his own party. Some may consider Lieberman a “fool” for standing with Republicans on issues like health care or national security issues but others, like myself, consider him a leader willing to stand up for his principles.
If you have not seen “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington,” I highly recommend it as a classic film about maintaining integrity in the midst of harsh criticism. We do have a couple Mr. Smiths in Washington today but this country could always use more such leaders in our nation’s capital today.
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It should be mandatory that every member of congress watch this movie once a year with cameras recording their reactions.
Of course, it should also be mandatory that we vote the same day as we have to file out income taxes.
While I don't always agree with Lieberman, I have always admired him for his independent thought. He seems to be his own man, never allowing anyone force him into a mold.
They had better find their cojones or they’ll find themselves out of a job. Our political class today is as feckless a bunch to come down the pike. Mr. Smith is a good example of the passion that’s needed.
Mr. Lieberman is certainly a fool, but in the usual, pejorative sense of the word. He's no Mr. Smith. Anyone with half a brain would entirely reject this half-baked, populist bullshit healthcare plan. By partially rejecting it, he's splitting the baby, a la King Solomon. He's also no King Solomon. I want him and the rest of his fellow travelers gone.
One of the best comments I read about this movie can be found on the IMDb trivia page:
"Bitterly denounced by Washington insiders angry at its allegations of corruption, yet banned by fascist states in Europe who were afraid it showed that democracy works."
Primaries are a way that the political machines control whom they prefer, end runs around them are rare, one case is the mayor of Youngstown. Having self serving washingtonians goes back to Adams and his frustration over them (although Adams and his son both were easily frustrated), the junior members are quickly put in place and any idealism is ripped from their soul. That is why we like movies for escape, and the oligarchy uses this scenario to advance candidates in both patries. Time has come for a third, forth or even fifth party and have a real representative democracy, you only waste your vote when it is cast for the lesser evil.
This socialist coup facilitated by our useless self-serving pigs-at-the-trough in Congress and their media friends would never have gotten this far without the sheer ignorance and fecklessness of voters. Ignorance of economics, history, foreign affairs and the Constitution is rampant in this country. That's a huge part of the sorry state we are in and it's what keeps me up at night.
There is no quick fix. Reversing the rot is going to be a long hard road, one election at a time. And, just as important every single time the media misbehaves we need to call them on it, hammer them with facts and never let up on them. We need to boycott the bad. We need make our voices heard at our schools and start challenging the lefty textbook re-writes. It's a start.
Lieberman voted for the Death Care bill yesterday. He is still a liberal hack. He is no Mr Smith.
Love the Jefferson Smith quote, "Either I'm dead right , or i'm crazy!"
Most of these Senators and Congressmen are a bunch bums, thieves with a license to steal. If your looking for Mr.Smith wait till it comes on t.v. or rent the film. That's the only place your going to find him.
Absolutely everything about this healthscare bill pizzes me off, starting with the fact that it's a huge socialist program and we know it isn't going to work. The latest thing is the fact MY taxes went to Landrieu (or whatever her name is) just to have her vote yes to keep this thing going! What's it going to cost us to pay off every political hack who will now balk just so they can get pork out of the final bill? No wonder we are in serious trouble with these mental giants running the country.
Mr. Smith is alive and well and currently on a book signing tour, going under the pseudonym "Mrs. Palin".
For conservatives unhappy that Lieberman is too liberal, just remember that he replaced Republican Lowell Weicker by being more conservative than Weicker. Lieberman was (and is) and improvement over Weicker.
Yes! Yes! Yes!
This is a fantastic film every politician should see. Totally brilliant. Truly a great movie in the sense that it manages to be relevant to our times 70 years after its release. You can't help but thing Frank Capra looked at the future and based this on Sarah Palin.
We need to stop troweling the praise on Lieberman. He has done some admirable things recently, but in fact he is a doctrinaire hard left social liberal. Unlike other Dems, he is possessed of a modicum of common sense and can at least be reasonable on the issue of terrorism. Despite the Mr. Smith/Soloman airs he puts on over socialized medicine though, I am at least 80% sure that he is going to vote with the Democrats to pass it. I will be gladly wrong about this and I'll be the first one to praise him for his correct decision should he help to vote down Obamacare. Until then, however, I'm going to hold off on the accolades.
Can the Vikings beat the Saints? Can the Colts beat either of them? Can the Seahawks beat anybody? Where's open thread Sunday? I want to talk about Rush Limbaugh and the NFL. I don't like him but I have never met him, he might be a decent person.
Who am I kidding? My comments will either never get posted or it will take 4 hours
Long live conservative censorship.
The problem with politicians in D.C.today is that you cannot have "integrity" unless you also have “personal accountability". Politicians today will not accept responsibility for any of their own actions, choices, votes, or even their own words. Today’s politicians understand that most voters just want to hear the right things said and are too lazy or not interested enough in politics to later hold them accountable for their words or actions. This is precisely why someone like Obama who had promised and campaigned on being more transparent than Bush, but in reality has been far less transparent than Bush. Now whether that was just an overly ambitious promise by an inexperienced naive politician, or Obama fully understood that it was just the ear candy that voters wanted to hear at election time, is anyone's guess. The simple fact of the matter is he shouldn't have said it unless he actually meant it. Which brings us back to my original statement of you can't have integrity without without also personal accountability.
Obama is the "Candyman" when it comes to ear candy.
Had the economy been addressed seriously back in Jan. the healthcare scam would now pass easily.
Followed by cap and trade. And Education. And Emigration.
However, big schemes require big bucks, so the economy may be saving the nation after all.
When politicians have no heart our soul (as we currently have) the people become enslaved. I'll take a fool any day with integrity and a soul, over ivy league evil.
"I'd rather entrust the government of the United States to the first 400 people listed in the Boston telephone directory than to the faculty of Harvard University"……… William F. Buckley, Jr.
The Ivy Leagues is where our socialist elites are molded. Outside of the hard sciences, they are a lousy choice for an education.
A third political party is the answer and with today's technology (the internet) it can be accomplished in time. While the Republicans will have there victories in 2010, fundamental change in Washington will not occur. I am given hope every day when I see that the people are finally starting to wake up and see the damage these self-centered, egotistical, crooks are doing to the greatest country this world has ever see. To give Lousiana $100 or $300 million in tax payers money to win one vote is a testament to how far we have sunk, plain bribery. We are at the fork in the road and must chose between the shining city on the hill or the down hill road to a socialist liberal state that stifles free speech, opportunity and individual rights, promising security and delivering none. I was at the 912 DC march and it gave me great pride see the people become uniteded against this socialist take over of our country.
I believe Thomas Jefferson said When the People are afraid of there Goverment that is Tyranny, When the Goverment fears its people that is liberty.
Fight On
Must be nice to write something for this site and have it actually show up.
Being a conservative makes me a "diabetic" and therefore Obama makes me gravely ill.
A great movie poster for an all time American classic:
http://www.impawards.com/1939/mr_smith_goes_to_wa...
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That was brutal. Loved it.
i am a proud conservative, but i agree with you about senator liebermann; he exudes integrety, and the hill, as well as the white house would be well served to have more people like him.
As a high school social studies teacher who leans conservative, believe me, it is not enough to challenge textbooks. Many unprofessional teachers feel it is their divine mission in life to promote and propagandize social justice and the liberalism of the left. It is pervasive and insidious.
Bill Ayers did not end up as an Education professor by accident; he and like-minded colleagues have been spewing and promoting Leftist ideology for years to generations of Education majors across the country. Just think of it: 30+ years of fertile propagandizing in colleges to education majors who then take the message to high schools, middle schools and elementary schools. The idolatry displayed by the videos of public school children signing Obama's praises is JUST what has been publicly exposed; think about what we have not seen! Check out the NEA which encourages its members to buy Saul Alinsky's books (http://www.nea.org/tools/17231.htm). Any teacher who does not promote a balanced look at divisive issues should be called out for unprofessional behavior.
The same process has been followed in schools of Journalism; truth is not as important as social justice journalism. We are witnessing the results of that movement: the transformation of what our Founders envisioned as the 4th branch of government into a propaganda machine the Goebbels would envy! All done without having to execute or imprison one journalist…the stooges are willing, messianic participants.
What an excellent comment! You are so right about the ignorance demonstrated by America's electorate, and the fact that there's no quick fix.
RRR makes a very good point, also. I once had a degreed "journalist" tell me proudly that a professor taught him that his duty to his profession was to "comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable." I'll be damned if I think that is a legitimate mission statement for a journalist. I'd much prefer to be told what happened, just the facts, and not have the story "massaged" to guide the viewer (or listener) to a foreordained conclusion about what the story means.
These people are sick, and they want to infect all of society with their disease. Truly, political liberalism is a mental illness. I think it's related to emotional retardation, where your body grows older while you cling to a child's view of "fairness" and "social justice."
I'm not entirely sure you're right. However, you're a helluva lot closer with your nomination than one would be in putting up Joe Lieberman. Very timely comment! (My best wishes are with Sarah Palin. I'm just not sure she has all that's required to go the distance.)
True dat.
You're right. Either Obama is so dishonest as to be unqualified, or so incompetent. In either case, he's in there and needs to be gotten out. This is the worst deal our country has ever gotten in a presidential election.
What an amazing quote. Old Bill had it going on. I loved the guy, and he wasn't some effete intellectual. He had the smarts, but he was passionate about conservatism. I love the exchange with Truman Capote. If you haven't seen it, go to youtube and type Buckley Capote in the search bar. (He threatens to punch Capote in the face. He also calls him a politically incorrect name for homosexual gentleman.)
Yes, but then I wasn't talking about necessarily about the presidency, rather the type people we need in Washington. Mr. Smith was a senator.
That being said, after seeing where Obama and his crew have taken us in less than a year I would choose to take my chances with her at the helm.
Thanks for writing back, and a big thank you for understanding that I wasn't trying to marginalize our girl Sarah. If she'd run in the primaries against the rest of that bunch, I would've voted for her. Our choices in 2008 were atrocious. I voted for McCain, but not cheerfully.
She is herself, totally. That is an unusual phenomenom in this day.
When I visited DC for the first time (newly graduated from college with a very useful BA in history & government) I had a Mr Smith moment when I walked out onto the Mall and could see all of the grandeur of the design and realization of the people who had walked here and talked here and died for it to work and all of that rolled into one. So, that part where Mr Smith gets caught up inthe sights and wanders off is my 2nd favorite part – right after, and only edged out by, the fillibuster.
Like a recent article bagging on Imagine, to Frank Capra I forgive all – and I love the movie too. But alas Mr. Smith asked of govt no different than the hated senior Senator. He wanted an earmark- he believed his bill was worthy of putting his hands in our pockets- a smaller govt Mr. Smith who did NOT want the earmark, is another movie altogether- you know Claude Rains wants a bill for his paper boys and… Mr. Smith… [I'd see it if he still gets Jean Arthur]
Yesterday it was yes, today it's no. Yes to the debate, no to the bill. He's dancing on the fence. Posturing for the senators, fence straddling for his constituents. Playing with fire for the country. He is no leader. A leader would always vote with his convictions. He could have stopped the bill.
Nice try Mr. Hanlon, but Senator Lieberman is no leader. How do you explain Joe Lieberman's flip flopping position on the health bill? There is no way this bill is good for the country, I do not care how you amend it. Lieberman voted yes to bring it to debate, now he says he will not support it, allowing a filibuster. His no means nothing now because Harry Reid can use reconciliation to bypass the filibuster.
A real leader does not take both sides of an issue. He or she votes his convictions every time he can. Lieberman probably has some convictions, but he sometimes retreats from them. Therefore he is no leader.
Primaries were invented to get the nomination process out of the hands of party bosses, and into the hands of the voters. Of course, if only a handful of voters turn out for the primaries, then the nomination rests in the hands of those voters. And, in the modern TV era, if someone pours several million dollars into an advertising blitz, they can swing a primary, so its out of the hands of party bosses, into the hands of plutocrats. I don't like Joe Lieberman, but something about that guy who ran against him in the primary turned me off. He was rude, flat, full of himself, and hollow. Its not enough to be the anti-Lieberman. Of course the only reason Lieberman won is because the Bush staff put out the word for most of Connecticut's Republicans to support him. If there had been a real Republican campaign, Lieberman would have come in second.
Sour grapes. Anyone who doesn't like current government policy can blame voters for ignorance, fecklessness, or any other bad condition that may come to mind. That's what liberals said about people who voted for George W. Bush. All it means is, somehow a majority of my fellow citizens actually supported something I don't like. That happens in a democracy. Grow up and deal with it like a big boy. There were all kinds of things wrong with my textbooks when I was growing up. I knew it, and I didn't let it define me. I knew how to check out my own books from the library. Driving a bus during both of the last two presidential elections, I had my finger on a totally unscientific pulse of the electorate. I know that the margin of victory in 2004 was voters who hadn't even made up their minds until the morning of the election. They were going to hold their noses no matter who they voted for. Likewise, I knew weeks before the election that older, traditionally Democratic, blue-collar Roman Catholic "white" voters were solidly for Obama. Not all of them. For God's sake, not all of any demographic is united on anything. Ask Thomas Sowell.
The operative word is "every." Anybody with an ax to grind wants the "other side's" politicians to watch this film. Ask any liberal, they will tell you Newt Gingrich and Larry Craig and Saxbe Chambliss Jim DeMint need to watch this film. Mr. Smith was so nonideological that anyone can hold him up as a standard.
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