Veep's Genius Is That It Makes Politics Look Even Worse Than It Actually Is

I’m pretty sure Veep is a corrosive, rotting influence on the nation’s collective view of American politics—and considering how corrosive and rotting that view already is, that’s saying something. When Veep premiered in 2012, many political sorts lambasted the show partly for its cruelty and profanity but mostly for its lack of realism. This was not just your run of the mill “that’s not how you pass a bill!” pedantry either. They were angry because it was so mean.

Eleanor Clift wrote, “If the aim of this show is to get viewers to disrespect everybody in elected office, mission accomplished,” and Slate’s John Dickerson (whose idealism and faith in the goodness of his fellow man I generally find appealing and refreshing) said that “a show that’s so soaked in cynicism about politics as a work of art smacks as lazy.” On Slate’s Political Gabfest, Dickerson expanded on that thought, saying that the show ignored that the vast majority of people who work in politics, the grunts who actually do much of the work, and do so out of a legitimate sense of civic obligation and real love for their country. Veep, which kicks off its fourth season on Sunday on HBO, is the furthest thing from “lazy,” but otherwise, I couldn’t disagree with any of this. Veep focuses on only the most venal, opportunistic side of politics and those who work in it, and if all I knew about politics I learned from Veep, I would crawl in a hole and never vote the rest of my life. Of course, down in that hole, despairing about the state of American discourse and government, I’d still be laughing my ass off.