Aah, the Utopian politics of Madam Secretary. No mention so far (I am on Season 3) of white lone wolves with “mental health” issues shooting down people, no pro Nazi rallies, no racism, no out of control police officers shooting black kids (one mention in passing) or the debate about reproductive rights of women, the hatred for immigrants.
The country has just one enemy. Muslim terrorists holed up in various parts of the world. There are multiple shots of people screaming Allah Hu Akbar and exploding themselves into pieces including one “radicalised” white girl. When a pandemic almost breaks out, it is in Africa and an American doctor makes a vaccine out of tobacco leaves!
Other thorns in the American hide are the usual suspects. An overreaching, wily China, a messy Russia, tinpot dictators of small, inconvenient countries, a bratty France, a coldly manipulating Germany, an Indian PM in a badly tied saree squabbling with Pakistanis over nukes. There is no internal enemy in America. Only countries to be managed, ticked off, schooled, corrected.
The only reason why it is endurable is because at its heart is a woman who uses her power with a moral compass that rarely wavers. A woman who speaks softly but has a point of view that she won’t abandon to be an appeaser. That and bursts of introspection that the writers occasionally engage in. Now if they only foresaw the emergence of Trump and a country that needs to save itself from bigotry, ignorance, hatred and implosive racism rather than to baby sit the world.