Talking to Vanity Fair last week, Schur acknowledged the parallels between his show and current events. “Leslie Knope was intelligent, hard-working, wonky, supremely qualified, and not particularly skilled at public appearances, so we just made her opponent the exact opposite —rich, ignorant, entitled, telegenic and thoroughly uninterested in the actual work.”
Schur added that he’s been unsurprised by the treatment of Clinton during the campaign so far. “The enmity people have for her is unprecedented. Her successes and achievements are dismissed as those of other people, or forgotten altogether. Her flaws —and she certainly has some— are magnified and dissected and blown up and discussed forever as if they are unique and unparalleled (they are not), and those discussions often involve politicians who are literally currently in the middle of their own enormous scandals. She is criticized —by professional, on-air journalists— for the sound of her voice and her physical appearance, and for not smiling enough —a situation, again, that women in this country are all too familiar with.”
The similarities are interesting, because Leslie Knope herself had her own issues with likability at one point. Famously, the show’s first season had an awkward start— the cast was not quite gelling and the series was struggling to escape from the shadow of “The Office.” Much of these issue revolved around the Leslie character, who markedly changed from the first to second season, and Schur admitted in an interview with Alan Sepinwall back in 2009 that some course-correction had to be done.
“I think what the writers intended as ‘takes her job too seriously’ read to some people as ‘oblivious,’ ” Schur said. “We found that it was more fun to watch the whole group moving toward a common goal. We don’t want people to feel like Leslie is on an island, in terms of her worldview… we just felt that Amy is an enormously likable presence on screen, so as the season went on, we just tried to create situations where that would shine through.”
Some of the issues during the debate (and in seasons to follow, when Leslie is repealed by the voters) are clearly the show’s meta commentary on that. And it’s a journey that Clinton’s had to go on this year as well.
Clinton’s favorability ratings have always been higher when she’s in office, whether as a senator for New York or as Secretary of State, than when she’s running for election. She’s always had an issue with seeming relatable, in large part because she’s inclined towards privacy and is suspicious of the press, and most of the major issues she’s had during this cycle are down her tendencies as such, whether her use of a private email server, her refusal to hold a press conference for months at a time, or only revealing that she was suffering from pneumonia after she collapsed while leaving a 9/11 memorial (the latter of which, as Salon pointed out, also brings to mind one of the best ‘Parks & Rec’ episodes, season three’s “Flu Season,” where Leslie battles through a debilitating flu virus in order to give a big speech).
As Todd Van Der Werff of Vox pointed out, the Republican establishment has tried to paint Clinton as a wonkish, unrelatable figure and an establishment insider for 25 years, but the Democratic Party used their convention in Philadelphia and the time since to course-correct a little. “She worked so hard she impressed political opponents,” Van Der Werff wrote. “She fought for what she believed in tirelessly. She never quit, even when things seemed dire.”
Whether on “Between Two Ferns” with Zack Galafianakis, or at last week’s debate, which found her wryly amused by Trump’s accusations without actively mocking him (and still baring teeth where needed), Clinton’s still Clinton, but the campaign’s found the right way to show that to be a good thing. The idea of women with ambitions to hold power still jars in certain circles: whether it’s Leslie or Hillary Clinton, both are subjected to Lady Macbeth comparisons or held to standards that male counterparts don’t have to face. But both ‘Parks & Rec’ and the Clinton campaign have so far managed to change the narrative and turn that ambition and drive into a virtue.
We won’t breathe easily until November 9th, but it seems to be working, despite the increasingly desperate attacks. As Knope herself says of Clinton in the second season episode “Sister City,” “That’s why people respect Hillary Clinton so much. ‘Cause nobody takes a punch like her. She’s the strongest, smartest punching bag in the world.”
