Loyalty, Solidarity, and Small Acts of Consolation
Amid public crises and political maneuvers the story returns again and again to private gestures of loyalty and consolation: aides arriving in formal dress to demonstrate solidarity, the President personally consoling hostage families, or colleagues rallying after embarrassment. These small communal acts ground institutional action in human ties and show how personal allegiance sustains people through moral and operational strain.
Events Exemplifying This Theme
A television newscast abruptly makes the Bitanga incident personal by naming the three captured Marines — Lance Corporals John Halley and Raymond Rowe and PFC Herman Hernandez — and reporting …
President Jed Bartlet meets, gently but tightly, with the families of three Marines held hostage. He performs the intimate labor of consolation—shields a frightened three‑year‑old, answers painful questions with careful …
In the Mural Room Leo McGarry, sitting in for the President, tries to console the families of three captured Marines. Martha Rowe needles at the comforts surrounding him and, upon …
In a late-night Orange County bar, Sam Seaborn, exhausted and defeated, confronts the reality of his faltering campaign while Toby Ziegler arrives to steady him. Their argument about tactics — …
In a dim Orange County bar, Toby quietly anchors a despondent Sam — admitting defeat but refusing to abandon him — and they share a tender, loyal embrace. Their private …