Conservatives Can Learn From Jon Stewart

I don’t hate Jon Stewart and I know few people who do. Stewart is a “happy warrior” for progressive America, using humor to push a message which tacitly vilifies conservatives and emboldens liberals. I wish conservative entertainers would learn from him.

Make no mistake about it, Stewart pushes a liberal agenda, so much that the Democratic Party Newsletter New York Times recently criticized him for not practicing what he preaches:

His claims to be objective fell flat. For instance, Mr. Stewart denied being in President Obama’s corner by re-airing a clip in which he had made fun of the Obamacare website’s rollout, as if that was the same as questioning Obamacare itself. That was par for Mr. Stewart’s course, mocking liberals’ tactics and implementation but not their underlying assumptions or ideas.

He could have made the liberals in his audience more open to dialogue across the great left/right divide by asking them to examine themselves more carefully and to admit that both ideological camps contain fools. Instead, he was a cultural entrepreneur who provided those viewers with the validation they wanted.

This is true but Mr. Stewart has been able to push his ideology, without too much criticism, because he is amiable.  Tone is as important as content in politics and Stewart has a great ear.  Consider this interview with Senator Marco Rubio.  Stewart hammers Rubio on Republican use of the filibuster, over and over again.  But his tone was pitch perfect:  he deferred to Rubio as an expert on the Senate, he hammered the Republican Party on immigration by complimenting Rubio, and he complimented Rubio on his wife.  In the second Rubio interview, Stewart trades policy barbs with him, plays to his liberal studio audience, and backs off at just the right moment.

Stewart picked apart Mike Huckabee about the culture, and the two Americas Huckabee described in his book and Huckabee was tongue-tied.  Huckabee was trying to explain that there are two Americas (and he’s absolutely correct) but Stewart had his studio audience (who are firmly in one of the Americas) to laugh at his jokes.  Everything Stewart did said was with a smile.

Finally, Stewart lampooned Obamacare consultant Jonathan Gruber for saying “Americans are too stupid to understand the law the way we wrote it.” Stewart subsequently demonstrated that Americans are too stupid to understand the law, pointed out the contradictions within the law, made fun of Pelosi for ignoring that, then threw up his arms and said, “Oh well!” Masterful deflection and everybody is laughing.

Jon Stewart was an effective mouthpiece for Progressive America.  He convinced a generation of Americans that his was the channel to get their news stories. He pointed out hypocrisy but never wavered from his progressive beliefs. Most importantly, he made everybody laugh — that’s what made him so effective.

Conservatives would do well to learn a few things from him.