Rediscovering Madam Secretary

Better late than never? We are mesmerized watching a five-year-old Netflix morality series called Madam Secretary, which follows a secretary of state who is skillfully portrayed by Téa Leoni. Remember the rich lady searching for her son on dinosaur-infested Isla Sorna in Jurassic Park III? (Sam Neill/Dr. Grant: “Please stop shouting on that bullhorn, Mrs. Kirby — making loud noises is not a good idea around here.”)

Madam Secretary enjoyed six seasons and 120 episodes, and if you missed it, you might want to dial it in — with certain caveats. Secretary Leoni and her whole staff are globalist, progressive, collectivist world-savers. Every night, she rescues humanity from some appalling catastrophe — from providing earthquake relief in Nepal to getting Iran to sign a nuclear nonproliferation treaty. She dodges nuclear war every six or eight episodes.

A colleague thinks the whole thing was originally conceived to boost Hillary Clinton into the presidency. Although political parties are never mentioned, Madam Secretary keeps a big bust of JFK, hobnobs with Madeleine Albright (still living during the filming), and has cuddly interviews with CBS’s Bob Schieffer. The occasional hard-nosed skinflint congressman, senator, or national security adviser is invariably a Ted Cruz or John Bolton–type character — so you don’t have to guess who’s who. (Occasionally a bouquet is tossed to the acceptable right: Maddy Albright says, “We have to have lunch with Condi.”) 

This is an exceptionally well-done production with talented acting, as long as you recognize the propaganda tilt. Example: all the foreign ambassadors, heads of government, or politicians Madam Secretary encounters are the Good and the Great — sensitive, feeling moderates, pining for representative government, rule of law, democracy, and friendship with America. They hobnob with the secretary, exchange visits in their homes, and even ask her to look out for their stateside children. Unfortunately, they have the habit of frequently turning up dead at the hands of the Ungodly (and you know who that is.) 

So Netflix wants us to believe this is what really goes on in the White House and State Department. If only we would recognize that the Iranians, North Koreans, Russians, Chinese, Houthis, and Pitcairn Islanders are just folks like us, we could solve all our problems. The reality, of course, is that they’re not anything like us, and we regard them as such at our peril. This is why I am in the minority for not condemning Trump for when he said Vlad and Xi and Little Rocket Man are “top of the line” — very good at what they do, with advisers as smart as they are. That’s not praising dictators. It’s recognizing the truth.

Richard M. Langworth is Senior Fellow for the Hillsdale College Churchill Project and the author of fifty books.

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