Vice’s self-congratulatory, arrogant, maddening mix of half-truths and glaring omissions explains why conservatives believe the “mainstream” world offers nothing for them. It also explains why they are so easily seduced and manipulated by conservative outlets and no-nothing political leaders who at least make an effort to take them, and the leaders they admire, seriously. It is easy for conservatives to believe Trump’s claims that the media and the “elites” despise them. Movies like this, with a narrative supported by a broad media consensus, prove that point. And they tick people off.
It is easy, when you think about it, to recall numerous films and TV programs featuring heroic liberal leaders. JFK, FDR, Jed Bartlet, Michael Douglas in The American President, the “good” presidents in the TV series 24. But other than Abraham Lincoln, who is rarely identified as a Republican, the GOP is generally portrayed in popular culture as either incompetent (see George W.), corrupt (Cheney), ruthless (Donald Rumsfeld) or all three. This result is not only historically inaccurate in each of these cases, at least in my experience, it is also boring and occasionally petty. For no apparent purpose other than to embarrass Bush, for example, the movie shows him stumbling around drunk in the Reagan White House, many years before he became president. What relevance does this have to the film? None.
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