“The West Wing,” a television show that ran from 1999 to 2006, featured Martin Sheen playing an idealized American president. Imagine if Mr. Sheen had then actually run for president — and won. Implausible, you say? In Ukraine, life has imitated art just as I’ve described.
Just over a year ago, Volodymyr Zelensky was a comic actor. His popularity soared thanks to a TV show called “Servant of the People” in which he played a history teacher who lives with his parents and rides his bike to work. One day, his rant against Ukrainian politics and politicians, surreptitiously recorded, goes viral on social media. The result: He’s elected president of Ukraine with 67 percent of the vote.
