Ms. Smith Goes to Washington

The broad reference here is to Frank Capra's 1939 masterpiece, an American political drama film starring Jean Arthur and Jimmy Stewart about one man's effect on American politics.  The story of the movie is this.  The governor of an unnamed western state has to pick a replacement for recently deceased U.S. Senator. His corrupt political boss pressures him to choose his handpicked stooge, while popular committees want a reformer. The governor's children want him to select Jefferson Smith (James Stewart), the head of the Boy Rangers. Unable to make up his mind, he decides to flip a coin. When it lands on edge, he chooses Smith, calculating that his wholesome image will please the
people while his naïveté will make him easy to manipulate

'Mr. Smith Goes to Washington' was attacked by the Washington press, and politicians in the U.S. Congress, as anti-American and pro-Communist for its portrayal of corruption in the American
government.  Well, welcome to Congress in the 21st century, and an election where an estimated 3 billion dollars was spent.  There are two rays of hope that shone through the post election fog.  The first is that there will be 20 women Senators in Washington--the most ever--one in five senators will be female.  That is especially gratifying after the full scale assault on women that occurred this
past year, where the party that purports to want to keep government out of your life wanted to dictate women;s choices for birth control, abortion, vaginal ultrasounds, and so much more.  There is some
welcome diversity amongst these women as well--the first openly gay woman in the Senate, and the first Asian American woman Senator.

The other great news is that it was not just Obama that minorities and women helped to elect--the House of Representatives will have 200 Democrats and fewer than half of them will be white men--there will be 61 women, 43 African-Americans, 27 Hispanics and 10 Asian-Americans. A
remarkable showing.  In addition, five will be openly gay, and one is bisexual. What is this country coming to?  A government that looks increasingly like the people it governs, that is what.