Jon Stewart is the Wrong Man for Our Political Moment

Jon Stewart's return to the Daily Show is, for many, the equivalent of Robert Downey, Jr. putting back on the Iron Man costume.  For Millennials, few figures have been as formative as Stewart.  While my parents went to bed watching Letterman and their parents before that fell asleep to Johnny Carson, I used to watch (religiously) The Daily Show every night before bed.  Stewart, who was on the show for 16 years (1999-2015) became one of the most important political figures of the era, regularly lambasting the Bush administration, and in many ways feeling like he ushered in the Obama years-a newer, younger, hipper president to go with a newer, younger, hipper late night host.  When he retired in 2015, it genuinely felt like the end of an era, and in some ways, like he might've retired with his work complete.  The Republican Party had been fully turned into the joke that it had long edged toward in the post-Nixon Era with the looming figure of another television host coming down an escalator approaching in the distance.

But in the years since Stewart left The Daily Show desk, we have learned that America was not ready for a new kind of hyper-aware politics.  In fact, it became quite the opposite.  Donald Trump actually did win the White House in 2016.  He did usher in a regime that would threaten many of the young people, the queer people and people of color and women, all of whom had gained an identity and a spot in the national conversation during the Obama years.  In 2020, they didn't necessarily elect another Barack Obama-style figure...Joe Biden was not someone that Stewart likely would've picked to be the next president.  But we got our escape hatch, and we took it.  And in 2024, it looks like Biden will be our only escape hatch again.

I don't plan on watching Stewart's return to The Daily Show despite being an active fan many years ago, and watching a clip of his show this week, I understood why.  Stewart is still a sharp man, insightful & in the years that he has taken off he's spent them being a vocal advocate for veterans' health benefits, a worthy cause and one he has pushed with his work in passing the Honoring Our PACT Act of 2022.  His criticisms of both sides (a phrase I'm using here not in the pejorative, but in the literal) are apt.  He's right when he says both sides have nominated an old man, one who has clearly shown obvious signs of aging (objectively, you have to admit both Biden & Trump are much older looking on the trail than they were 8 years ago).  But by doing this as a comedic bit, making fun of both sides in the same breath, he slips into the "both sides" pejorative meaning-like it or not, he does make it easier for people like Trump to gain moderate or swing voters through his work.

Doubt me?  Look at some of the headlines-virtually all of them focus on Stewart's attacks on Biden, ignoring Trump.  Business Insider, Daily Beast, Fox News, the Boston Globe, Yahoo, OK Magazine...I'm scanning every single one of their headlines about Stewart's criticisms of Biden, and you know the word all of them are missing: Trump.  Stewart is clearly not prepared for this, and in hindsight, clearly wasn't ready for the Trump Era.  He doesn't understand that in a new media landscape, one where Republicans are not held to the same standards as Democrats, attacking a Democrat is tantamount to giving Republicans license to do ANYTHING.  Look at how Biden's flub mixing up the Presidents of Mexico & Egypt this week was treated with a greater level of scrutiny than Donald Trump literally telling Russia to invade Europe.  Possibly the single worst thing Trump has done since January 6th, ripping up NATO, the single most important tool for global peace in the history of the planet, is just as bad as a vocal flub.  It's not the same, and Stewart should know better.  After all Jon, you know who voted to save the Honoring Our PACT Act...every single fucking Democrat in Congress.  You know who didn't-people like Tommy Tuberville, Rand Paul, Mike Lee, and current House Speaker Mike Johnson-every single vote against helping veterans in the bill you pushed for was cast by a Republican lawmaker.  You don't owe your undying loyalty to any political party, but Joe Biden was the guy who backed you in the most important political argument of your time as an activist, not Donald Trump.

The reality is, comedy is not ready for Donald Trump, a man who knows how to manipulate media better than any other politician in recent American history, and in his case, he especially knows how to play comedians.  I remember when Hillary Clinton lost, insider rumors were that Kate McKinnon was bereft because she thought she'd contributed to Clinton's loss by mocking her on the show.  At the time, I (unkindly) thought "yes, you kind of did."  In the years since, it's become apparent that Saturday Night Live has been a godsend for Republicans.  Weekend Update jokes that make it seem like both sides are equally terrible, or sendups of Democratic politicians like those done by McKinnon or Jim Carrey as Joe Biden, ones that rely on conservative caricatures to land their punchlines, end up flattening the political argument.  It's a "both sides" argument by not admitting the differences.  There's an ethos in comedy that "nothing is off limits" but if you're using comedy to make a political statement, that means that you need to identify, in transparent terms, which side is better than the other.  SNL doesn't do that...and it's why, yes, the show making a mockery of the historic nature of the Trump/Clinton election did, to some degree, contribute to Clinton's loss.

Which brings me back to Stewart.  Stewart is one of the rare figures in the television landscape who can still command headlines.  More than any other figure on TV, including news anchors, he's the kind of recognizable name who can go viral for making a stand.  But if his opening episodes are any indication, I don't think he's up for the gravity of this moment.  Mocking both sides when there is a clear, moral imperative for America to choose one of those sides to save itself, is dangerous.  Criticizing Joe Biden is not inherently pro-Trump, but not understanding that your criticisms as a public figure of Biden will be used to help elect Trump is helping him.  Similar to McKinnon, Stewart doesn't want to elect Donald Trump...that doesn't mean that his platform won't help make it happen.