Oh Noes! Obama is really a lizard!
As a child I loved the show V. So you can imagine that I would be excited for the new re-imagining that has aired on ABC. I was thinking that if the effort is half as good as the new Battlestar Galactica was, that I would be very happy. I was not disappointed.
But during my enjoyment of the show I had heard from fellow liberals that this show was really an attack against the Obama administration. Now, I can understand why liberals would feel a little jumpy over potential attacks against our president. I mean, he is an accused Arab, Muslim, terrorist, Kenyan, Indonesian, or Marxist… depending on which conservative panic attack you are listening to.
So did the writers really use this show as a vehicle to attack Obama? According to Scott Peters, the answer is no. So why do people think that the show really is attacking Obama?
First of all the leader of the alien race promises universal healthcare in one of the episodes, and we all know that the aliens are nefarious creatures using universal healthcare to gain our trust. So it only follows that others seeking universal health coverage must be bad as well. But if this was what the writers intended, it would be a very sloppy way to attack the President. Sure, some people who promise universal care are overall bad people (Fidel Castro for one). But other people (like Teddy Roosevelt) have pushed for universal health coverage as well. By suggesting that the mere inclusion of universal healthcare makes this an attack would imply that they are also attacking Teddy Roosevelt. The visitors in the original series also provided people with better medical technology to treat illness. So to me, by providing new and improved methods to deliver healthcare, the writers are only staying true to the original show.
The last show of the fall added a new wrinkle to their universal health coverage: long lines. One of the arguments made against Obama’s healthcare plan is that in countries like Canada or England, you have long waiting periods to get care. Of course, Obama is not pushing for a system like Canada or England but that doesn’t stop the conservatives from making their attacks. However, there is one major flaw with the argument that the long lines on V simulate the suggested long lines that come with expanding coverage universally. On the TV show, everyone is seeking treatment at new centers. Under the Obama plan, no new centers with super advanced alien healing processes are going to be created that will cause everyone, even those with existing healthcare, to run to new health clinics. People will still remain with their current doctors so there will be no mad rush for new healthcare.
The last show of the fall also had a batch of tainted flu vaccines, meant to kill humans. People are suggesting that this is also an attack against Obama because of the swine flu and the rush to get out a new vaccine to cover it. But take the time to think about it. Do you really think that the show was written after the swine flu epidemic started? It obviously was not. This show has been in the works for a while. There is no way they could have known about a rush to get new vaccines to people to cover the swine flu or that people would be questioning if we should use them.
Maybe the show is attacking Obama because the ships kind of look like the letter “O” and that Obama has white and black parents, just like the new lizard baby will have parents of different backgrounds as well. And that is my point. You can probably take any drama on TV and shoehorn it into being some sort of attack on someone. That doesn’t make the attack true. I could say that the show is really attacking Sarah Palin because the leader of the aliens is an attractive brunette who can see Russia from her mothership.
V is a really well done show. If the writers really wanted to attack Obama, they would have done so in a much better way than what is being claimed.