“And you know that you fight for the lost causes harder than for any others. Yes, you even die for them. Like a man we both knew, Mr. Paine. You think I'm licked. You all think I'm licked. Well, I'm not licked, and I'm gonna stay right here and fight for this lost cause even if this room gets filled with lies like these, and the Taylors and all their armies come marching into this place! Somebody'll listen to me!” -Jefferson Smith, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington These lines, delivered as Senator Jefferson Smith was on his last legs after a heartbreaking filibuster, represent everything that is Frank Capra. It represents the ideal that if you keep trying you can make a difference, the ideal of never giving up, and the ideal that that the common man can rise above the elite. Jefferson Smith was not a superhero; George Bailey was not a man who suffers from a deep disturbing secret past, and somehow New York is spared from explosions or insidious plots when Lo...
Malcolm Coates