F*cking buckle your seat belt: Jon Stewart sounds the rallying cry for fighting Trumps agenda

[Miles Archer]

‘F*cking buckle your seat belt’: Jon Stewart sounds the rallying cry for fighting Trump’s agenda

http://www.rawstory.com/2016/12/fcking-buckle-your-seat-belt-jon-stewart-sounds-the-rallying-cry-for-fighting-trumps-agenda/

It’s been over a year since “Daily Show” genius Jon Stewart walked away from his war against bullsh*t and as the 2016 Election post-mortems play out, Stewart cut through the noise to talk about the new President-Elect.

“It is odd to be in a position of knowing that the leader of the free world tweeted that you were a p*ssy at 1:30 in the morning,” Stewart said at his latest TimesTalks appearance.

***

But Stewart wasn’t giving Trump a pass. He said that Trump’s campaign painted Clinton as “an unqualified Secretary of State because the way she handled classified material. His selection for Secretary of State will be David Petraeus, who pled guilty to mishandling classified material. He said she was unqualified because she gave a speech to Goldman Sachs. His Secretary of the Treasury is somebody from Goldman Sachs. We’re in post-accountability.”

***

“They don’t give a flying f*ck about governance, they care about campaigns and that’s where the fun is for them. That’s devastating,” Stewart confessed. “And not only is it devastating news-wise, it’s devastating to all of us. Because if a campaign is too long, the fault lines between different tribes in our societies solidify. A campaign is 18 months long and you’ve got to choose a side for 18 months and then a disagreement becomes an argument and an argument becomes a fight and a fight becomes a feud and a feud becomes a war.”

http://www.rawstory.com/2016/12/fcking-buckle-your-seat-belt-jon-stewart-sounds-the-rallying-cry-for-fighting-trumps-agenda/

[secondwind]

1. HUGE K & R

[Buckeye_Democrat]

2. Tell you what... I wouldn't mind seeing him run for President! The electoral college...

... is probably going to elect a TV personality soon, so it's obviously not "unprecedented" anymore. At least Stewart has a good brain!

[SpareribSP]

3. I like Jon's take on all of this.

It all makes sense and it's a breath of fresh air to me.

[annabanana]

4. And the campaign really isn't over.

The "thanks suckers" tour has just begun.

[Cosmocat]

5. He is hands down the smartest and toughest advocate

we have ...

Miss him dearly.

[Paladin]

6. Thank you, Jon Stewart. For God's sake, don't go away again.

If ever liberals needed a clear, articulate, enraged public spokesman, it's now.

[Firebrand Gary]

10. YES! And he should jump into the arena! Jon for DNC CHAIR!

[bluestateboomer]

7. I love Jon, but...

His message is one of nuance. Our side does nuance. How many times have you tried to patiently and logically explain a position only to be told your facts aren't facts. We like Jon because he can speak of the contradictions that even our best leaders have but still see them attempting to progress for all of us. Our opposition doesn't care about this balance. I don't know how many times I would say things like, "I'm a Bernie guy. Hillary is not perfect, but of all the accusations thrown at her most were not true. Trump will say anything for effect just to please the crowd, it doesn't have to be true." The election proved just how far appealing to logic went.

Jon Stewart tries to be nice to all sides. To his credit, he sees his job as bringing us together. The funny thing is that really puts him on our side.

[progressoid]

8. That's true.

I remember so many of them not getting The Colbert Report was a mockery of their "news".

And when so many evangelicals couldn't see that Trump is the antithesis of everything they supposedly believe, I have to wonder how it's possible through to them.

[Firebrand Gary]

9. Jon should STFU!

If he wants to contribute, then he should throw his hat in the ring for DNC Chair RIGHT NOW! Same goes for everyone else who has a platform, but rather than get their hands dirty, they Monday morning quarterback and coach from outside the stadium.

[Paladin]

11. I want Jon where he can do maximum, sustained, public damage to Trump.

The way things currently are, I have serious doubts that the DNC chair is where he ought to be. And I believe your "Monday morning quarterback" denigration of Stewart is way out of line.

[crim son]

13. I'd say you are doing the same thing

but I don't know you. Perhaps you are on the cusp of changing our political world. Perhaps you posting here on DU is just a cover for your furious activities IRL. Perhaps you are like Jon Stewart and everybody knows your name, respects your point of view and is impressed by your intelligence. Perhaps.

[drmeow]

12. I disagree with him on this

“Not everybody that voted for Trump is a racist,” he explained. “I don’t give a f*ck what any of you say to me. You can yell it at me, you can tweet it at me. They’re not all racists. Or they’re not giving tacit support to a racist system … We all give tacit support to exploitative systems as long as they don’t affect us that badly.”

First of all - if we are all giving tacit support to exploitative systems as long as they don't affect us that badly then, by definition, people who voted for Trump are giving tacit support to that system. You can't say, "They aren't doing X, we're all doing X" and have it be true. You can only say "They may be doing X but we all do forms of X in some way."

However, in addition there is a difference between being complicit in supporting things that hurt others - like buying an iPhone - and voting to make the President of one of the most powerful nations (if not the most powerful nation) a man who openly talks about minorities and women the way Trump does. To me, Stewart's argument is a false equivalency. People who voted for an openly sexist and racist fuck are not the same as people who turn a blind eye to the abuses of people in a country far away from them. While the first doesn't make the second right, the second doesn't prevent the first from tacitly supporting racism and sexism. (Notice Stewart conveniently left off sexism in his statement - I love Jon but he definitely made my Feminist self want to say STFU a few times and, yes, by continuing to watch him I supported his sexism.) Stewart is basically saying "they aren't racist cause nobody's perfect."

Furthermore, his example of first responders who voted for Trump shows a deep lack of understanding of racism. You don't have to be burning crosses and refusing to serve people of color to be racist - you can even have friends of color and be racist just as you can be married and sexist! In addition, many of those first responders may have become actively racist (against Muslims) since 9-11.

The truth of the matter is that people who voted for Trump heard him say racist and sexist things and they decided that they were OK with that. They didn't stay home and just not vote or vote for a third party (which is what the non-racist anti-Hillary people did) - they made a conscious choice to vote for Trump. It is not like he had well thought out proposals for solving all the problems he claimed he would solve such that people could say "Well, his racist and sexist BS is a problem but 5 point plan to do x will really improve things in this country." He said he was going to drain the swamp and, without him giving a single example of how he would do that (i.e., I'll appoint so and so as Secretary of X because so and so is not part of Washington and has these bonafide qualifications), decided that made all of the negative stuff not matter. Bull shit.

(I'd like to see Larry Wilmore explain this to Jon.)

[JudyM]

14. Really good articulation of what I've been feeling, thanks.

[drmeow]

15. Thanks

To be fair, I can't really claim full/independent credit for anything I wrote as I, myself, got most of it from other sources.

[jack69]

16. You are what you support.

It's the old saying, "If you support a racist (or any other type of person) then that makes you a racist by complicity. It's as simple as that. Using my older sister as an example, who by her thoughts is America's greatest Christian, supporting a person who stands for anything but forgiveness, acceptance and love of all is beyond my understanding. At least I don't pretend to be on such a high loft, but her hypocrisy is overwhelming.