Ceremony of the Flag, Quiet Walkout
Plot Beats
The narrative micro-steps within this event
Man 1st delivers a patriotic monologue about the symbolic power of the American flag, framing it as a universal emblem of freedom and sacrifice.
Bartlet and others applaud the speech, offering a moment of political theater and performative unity.
Man 2nd counters with an appeal to national unity, invoking historical authority as key staffers discretely exit, signaling their disengagement from the debate.
Who Was There
Characters present in this moment
Publicly supportive and composed; privately attentive and calculating about political consequences.
President Jed Bartlet sits at or near the head table, responding with polite and visible applause to the speakers' patriotic rhetoric, embodying ceremonial endorsement while absorbing the room's optics.
- • Signal respect for patriotic ritual and veterans to maintain broad appeal.
- • Avoid an immediate public rupture while gathering information about staff positions and reactions.
- • Public ceremonies and symbols carry political weight and must be managed with care.
- • Appearing to honor veterans and national unity is politically necessary even amid policy disagreement.
Uneasy and privately outraged; choosing containment over spectacle to preserve message discipline.
Toby Ziegler walks out with Josh and Sam mid‑speech, his exit communicating silent moral objection and discomfort with the amendment's framing while suppressing a public scene.
- • Avoid having the President's communications office seen endorsing a measure he finds constitutionally or ethically troubling.
- • Later shape the administration's messaging to separate the President from blunt appeals that compromise principle.
- • Language and public ritual matter; endorsing the amendment would be a corrosive use of presidential symbolism.
- • Strategic silence or private dissent can be more effective than public protest in preserving the President's voice.
Passionate and righteous; confident that moral language will compel support.
The unnamed conference speaker delivers a stirring, patriotic argument invoking veterans and national unity to persuade the President and attendees to back the proposed amendment.
- • Move the President and his supporters to publicly endorse the flag‑protection amendment.
- • Frame the amendment as a nonpartisan, moral imperative rooted in respect for veterans.
- • Invoking veterans and icons of jurisprudence will confer moral and institutional legitimacy to the amendment.
- • Public ritual and rhetorical appeals can translate into political action if performed convincingly.
Distrustful and discreetly frustrated; composed outwardly but urgent underneath.
Joshua Lyman quietly stands and exits the conference room with Toby and Sam, physically removing himself from the staged applause to register dissent and create space for private consultation.
- • Avoid participating in a public endorsement he views as politically or morally risky.
- • Seek a private space to confer with colleagues and strategize a response offstage.
- • Public association with the amendment will carry political cost for the administration.
- • Tactical withdrawal is a safer way to signal disagreement than a public confrontation.
Embarrassed but resolute; prefers private handling of disagreement over public rupture.
Sam Seaborn departs the room alongside Toby and Josh, quietly removing himself from the applause and signaling alignment with staff skepticism rather than the public ritual.
- • Prevent the administration from being boxed into a definitive public stance without counsel.
- • Preserve the President's political capital by steering dissent away from spectacle.
- • The optics of public ritual can be misleading and dangerous if not aligned with substantive policy judgment.
- • Private staff deliberation is the right place to resolve thorny moral-political issues before public action.
Charles Evans Hughes is not physically present but is rhetorically invoked by the speaker as an authoritative touchstone for 'national …
Objects Involved
Significant items in this scene
The proposed Flag‑Protection Amendment operates as the event’s focal object: it is the subject of the speeches, the reason for staged applause, and the implicit target of the aides' exit. It is not a physical document onstage but a rhetorical artifact whose presence organizes allegiances and reveals ruptures in the President's circle.
Location Details
Places and their significance in this event
The Orange County Hotel Conference Room serves as the ceremonial stage for the amendment pitch: a neutral, fluorescently lit space where patriotic speeches, applause, and optics are manufactured. It creates a public performance of unity that is immediately complicated by the aides’ departure.
The adjacent courtyard functions as the exit route and immediate refuge for Josh, Toby and Sam — a small outdoor space that converts visible dissent into private negotiation and contains the political rupture away from cameras and applause.
Narrative Connections
How this event relates to others in the story
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Key Dialogue
"Man 1st: "Mr. President, I rise today to say that the American flag is probably the most recognized symbol in the world. Wherever it stands, it represents freedom. Millions of American citizens, who have served our nation in war, have carried that flag into battle. They have been killed just for wearing it on their uniforms, because it represents the most feared deterrent to tyranny. And that is liberty.""
"Man 2nd: "Mr. President, This is not a perfect nation, but to the world outside, it represents what is right. And to Americans, it represents what Chief Justice Charles Evans Hughes...referred to as our national unity, our national endeavor.""