U.S. Civic Character - Mr. Smith Goes to Washington

The America portrayed by Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, while not blind to certain serious systemic issues in the country, ultimately promotes a patriotic view of America as a nation built on a shared, if idealistic, civic creed. This creed would be described by Seymour Martin Lipset in American Exceptionalism (1996) as "liberty, egalitarianism, individualism, populism, and laissez-faire" while referencing America's unique role as a nation founded on a creed. 

Mr. Smith and his character do not condone the faults in America's political institutions, and the film does not argue that the institutions of the United States have lived up to their stated purpose. Mr. Smith as our point of view and hero reaches his position as senator despite lacking an understanding of the reality of U.S. politics, which his assistant has to patiently walk him through. Generally, Mr. Smith is able to serve as a senator through luck that corrupt pieces of the system let him through and eventually give in to Mr. Smith's commitment to American ideals. By putting Mr. Smith in conflict with the political machinery in Washington, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington still lauds American ideology. 

Mr. Smith's first idea for a bill to pass was for a boy's camp to be built, someplace that could teach the civic creed of America to young boys who might become senators after him. The teaching of a common American identity through civic creed, a message that might be enticing to some during a period of extreme division in America. Failures to meet the civic creed of "liberty, egalitarianism, individualism, populism, and laissez-faire" are apparent in the film through a portrayed corrupt boy's club of a senate. These failures, as they exist in our world, undermine the national creed which underlies American unity, thus posing a very significant threat to both the American ideal and America as a nation.