This episode is different from most episodes of The West Wing, as it takes mainly takes place outside of the White House. Throughout the episode, the President and a majority of his staff are doing various things in California. All the while, his staff is working to pass a bill for an ethanol tax credit. However, the most votes the White House can get is 50, which makes it a tie. The Vice President is asked to be the tie-breaking vote and pass the bill, but he wants to vote against it.

This week, Vice President Harris has been in the News because she broke a tie in the Senate on the Inflation Reduction Act. She voted for the bill, breaking the tie in favor of what the White House wanted.

Although it might seem like new news that the Vice President gets to break a tie in the Senate, this rule was written into the Constitution. In fact, the Vice President is considered to be the “President of the Senate”.

The Inflation Reduction Act is so big that the Vice President breaking the tie made the news, but that tie-breaking vote was her 26th in office. Collectively, United States Vice Presidents have broken 294 Senate ties.

In The West Wing, the ethanol tax credit is not the most popular, with Sam even joking he had to put some members, “in a headlock to vote our way”. Vice President Hoynes consistently voted against such measures throughout his political career and truly does not believe the bill should be passed. Even though it is threatened that he could be dropped from the ticket in the next election or asked for his resignation, he refuses to vote to pass the bill if it comes to a tie.

In the end, President Bartlet decides to keep some democrats from voting for the bill, that way there is no tie the Vice President would have to break. This causes the bill to fail, which the President congratulates the Vice President on, confessing that he agrees with him on ethanol, and telling him, “You had a good day today.”

Would something like this happen today?

Modern Vice Presidents have been generally in line with their parties, and Presidents. Rather than be able to stand up for what they believe in, such as fictional Vice President Hoynes did, they have often had to get in line with whatever their President. For example, while in 2019 Vice President(the Senator) Harris said she was in favor of fracking, in the 2020 Vice Presidential debate when Vice President Pence brought up that stance, she had to walk it back, repeatedly saying that President Biden would not ban fracking.

In today’s age, comments that Politicians make are immediately in the hands of anyone with a cell phone. Having free press was meant to keep politicians accountable, but today it seems to rather force them to say whatever it takes to win.

Now that we have Social Media, many people get their news by simply reading headlines and snippets of quotes taken out of context and then posted about.

Instant News has caused extremities in the political landscape that make it more and more impossible for Presidents and Vice Presidents to go against the will of their party. For example, many Republicans who had initially agreed to vote to pass a bill to help Veterans who were exposed to toxic burn pits flipped their votes when voting time came in what many believe was a retaliation of democrats working out an agreement to pass the Inflation Reduction Act. This obviously seems to be a move grounded in politics, meant to show strength, rather than one of moral accountability.

However, there is still hope that when things get too bad those in power will do what is right. This can be recently seen when Vice President Pence, going against former President Trump’s wishes, certified the results of the 2020 presidential election.

It is important for teens in this age of digital media to not get their news all from the headlines of articles that pop up on their Instagram feeds. And it is important for all who vote to choose candidates based on their willingness to do what is right rather than a letter beside a name.