You’re correct to say that the Republican governor hadn’t cut funding in Season 3, but the reason the schools were in the hole is because their funding had been cut for so long by that governor: it only came to a head for Carcetti because he inherited the problem that Royce had been ignoring for so long, letting it get worse and worse. Since Carcetti made promises to the teachers in his campaign, he had to find a way to deal with the budget crisis.)

I think the overall message of the show is more that In general, corruption is apolitical, and the real villain. The Republicans in the show are mostly names and legacies that the Democrats decry the evils of, but corruption comes from the Democrats AND the Republicans. It’s that simple. The real evil in the show time after time is not Republicans, or Democrats, or even “Government,” but rather corruption in everything from juking stats for promotions, to bending rules for Pulitzers.

Additionally, it depicts a system broken in part because people never fix the problems around them because they refuse to admit to uncomfortable truths, which is also apolitical, but is usually a Liberal claim in everything from the environment to affirmative action to educational reform. Take the depiction of standardized testing in public schools: ineffective, counter productive, biased. This is a Liberal argument; I can’t remember the last time I saw a Republican talking about the school systems other than to say that “Intelligent Design” should be taught in them too.

Let’s go through the list of assertions from each season after the first:
-Unions are corrupt: Conservative, but the sympathy is clearly with them anyway because they need to be corrupt to survive.
-Politics are corrupt: Apolitical.
-Public schools and police departments need more funding; Liberal. Conservatives are just as likely to cut funding to police departments as they are to public schools, under the umbrella of “less government spending.”
-Media is insincere; Apolitical.

The overall message of the show though?
-The Drug War is a failure; Liberal/Libertarian. Not all Democrats would say this, but many have gone on record as for the decriminalization of drugs, and the only Republicans that dare espouse this view on national television are the ones that are more Libertarian than Conservative.

In answer to the question of what another season might be to show the Liberal views of the creators more clearly, it seems pretty straightforward to me: the privatization of prisons and by extension the corruption of the justice system. It’s hard to make a series that’s focusing on a single city really encompass the “conservative evils” of big businesses using their monetary clout to influence laws and deregulate health and safety measures, but they could do something with that on a smaller scale in terms of pollution and monopolizing.

Two words:

Omar Little.

I mean, c’mon. The most compelling character in the series rivals Baron von Munchhausen for sheer *un*-believability.

*The Wire* is lefty romanticism masquerading as gritty realism. It’s great fun, but if you take it for anything more than that, you’re only making a fool of yourself.

That was terribly dishonest of you. In Season 3, the Republican governor of Maryland did not “cut any funding.” The schools were shown as having thrown tens of millions of dollars down the hole, and the newly elected Mayor had to find some way to plug this hole… so he goes to Annapolis to beg the Republican Governor for money. We dont see what happens in this interaction, until Season 4 when Mayor Carcetti’s aide tells him he should have taken the money from the Governor, instead of thinking about his chances of running for Governor of Maryland next year. Sorry you lose this one.

Seinberg, what do you think would happen in an episode where funding went up, if that episode stayed in the character of other episodes?

*SPOILERS*
Just watch seasons 3 and four. In three a new education program created by liberal academics is having success in transforming inner city youths until the republican governor cuts funding for baltimore. In four, McNulty creates a scenario by which he is able to increase funding for the police department and as funding increases so does the wellbeing of the city.

The wire is good drama, especially in that it can create a world so natural that everyone reads in their own political message.

BTW, does does he really think that the actual Baltimore government is as bad as the one in The Wire (which I’ve never seen)?