Rand Paul outwits Jon Stewart!
Jon Stewart seemed to be completely off his game while interviewing Rand Paul. Was he on vacation too long? Did he make the calculation to be soft on Rand Paul to ensure that the Daily Show post Stewart will get another interview deeper into the election season?
To be sure, Jon Stewart brought up two important Republican inconsistencies. “This idea by the way,” Stewart said. “Your party is known for wanting to defend the people of America from government overreach. To protect liberty I believe they call it. They have signs. Don’t tread on me flags. But when it comes to government surveillance, when it comes to the security state, they seem very willing to allow the government with what appears to be very little oversight to get whatever they want.”
Rand Paul’s answer was excellent however self-serving. “You didn’t see the other sign they have?” Paul asked. “We don’t like big government until we do like big government.”
Paul went on to say that that is what separates his Libertarian GOP wing from the Republican party. Jon Stewart did little to probe Paul any further. What about Paul’s picture with the aircraft carrier as a campaign backdrop. What about his amendment to substantially increase the defense budget to satisfy the military industrial complex who likely feared his Libertarian stance.
Later on in the interview Jon Stewart tackled religion. Stewart allowed Rand Paul to make a coherent defense for allowing businesses to use religion to discriminate. Stewart did get a little jab in. “We have this idea that corporations are people and should it be as easy as ‘I don’t agree with this’,” Stewart said. “And it is because I am Christian. … It seems like gay marriage looms a lot larger in the minds of certain conservatives than it does in the Bible. And the only thing I would say is, don’t they sell cakes to sinners all the time? Adulterers? … When you come in, you go, I’d like a cake and they go, ‘Do you use the name of the Lord in vain?’ … It feels disingenuous.”
Rand Paul ducked the question by using Stewart’s use of the term ‘corporations are people’ to drop the religious aspect of the discussion and return to the surveillance state. Stewart let him get away with it.
Jon Stewart was definitely off his game!