Days after the 2016 election, Amy Poehler wrote a letter to America as Leslie Knope, the indefatigable protagonist of “Parks and Recreation.” Back then, her letter was a condolence for the election of a metaphorical “giant farting T. rex.”
“I understand, intellectually, that he won the election. But I do not accept that our country has descended into the hatred-swirled slop pile that he lives in,” she wrote for Vox. “We figure out how to fight back, and do good in this infuriating world that constantly wants to bend toward the bad.”
Needless to say, Leslie was devastated, and no amount of “hot chocolate and back rubs” could console her. Fast forward a couple of years, and “Parks and Rec” fans still want to know What Would Leslie Do. After Elle posed the question to Poehler this week, she seemed to have changed her mind. When asked how Leslie would handle the Trump presidency, Poehler responded:
Swinging to secret sycophancy may not be the answer either, but it’s interesting that Poehler has changed her tone from outright combat to subversive scheming. It’s almost as if Democrats have realized, in the past couple of years, that simply shouting “not my president” doesn’t work. She doesn’t like President Trump any more than she did, but she’s thinking more strategically. More like a politician.
“Parks and Recreation,” which ran from 2009-2015, focused on Leslie’s political efforts in small-town Pawnee, Ind. Leslie was clearly a Democrat, often gushing over Madeleine Albright, Nancy Pelosi, and Hillary Clinton. Poehler herself is an outspoken liberal, having supported Stacey Abrams in Georgia’s 2018 midterm elections, and told Elle in the same interview, “Stacey’s loss was part of what felt like a broken system.”
But the show, with Ron Swanson’s libertarianism and everyone else’s virtual moderation, managed not to alienate the other side. It featured across-the-aisle cameos from Michelle Obama and Joe Biden to John McCain and Newt Gingrich. Leslie got along with characters who had different opinions than hers, and her relationship with Ron is one of the highlights of the show.
In “Parks and Recreation,” Leslie fights her political battles with gumption and sass, not, as in her Vox letter, through boxes of tissues. Over the past two years, it seems as if Poehler has begun to understand Leslie more.
Leslie’s 2016 letter was a typical post-election reaction, but her latest response feels a little more Leslie, a little more 2019: If you can’t beat ’em, join ’em — then take their secrets and run.
