Jon Stewart on the conservative same sex marriage debate
Jon Stewart used Fox News, conservative Supreme Court justices, and Donald Trump to explain why conservatives lost the same sex marriage debate. It mostly has to do with the complete disassociation with reality.
Jon Stewart starts with the acknowledgement that last week was a great week. The crime by Dylann Roof started the process of removing the Confederate flag not only from the capitol grounds in South Carolina but from flags and capitols throughout the South. The Supreme Court upheld Obamacare subsidies. It also upheld housing anti-discrimination laws. And for the first time in America’s history, same sex marriage was made legal in all fifty states.
What was conservative politicians reactions? “Today is some of the darkest 24 hours in our nation’s history,” said Senator Ted Cruz. Jon Stewart was not impressed with Cruz’s dissent. He played clips from Fox News where the pundits spoke about the rulings as if the Supreme Court committed heresy. Fox News pundits made statements like, “It was a huge loss for our democracy.”, “They essentially turned the Constitution on its head and I believe put a nail in the democratic process.”, “There will be an effort to force people to conform.”, and “This is redefining a fundamental institution.”.
But it gets worse. They made the small business person a false victim. They made statements wondering what would be the repercussion if a florist did not want to provide service to a gay couple. The evangelical florist, caterer, etc. became their imagined victim.
“The really weird part of the conservative reaction is when it stops being about the court making this decision,” Jon Stewart said. “And starts criticizing the idea of the court making any decision.”
Stewart went on to play snippets with the new narrative being articulated by many conservatives. Rick Santorum claimed that five unelected judges redefined the foundational unit of society. Ted Cruz said it was crazy to have unelected lawyers decide these issues. Mike Huckabee said that it was not the founding fathers intent that five black robed unelected lawyers rule on these issues. Of course they are all wrong. That is exactly how our check and balance system was designed and they all know it.
What took Jon Stewart aback? Even the conservative Supreme Court justices were getting into the ‘attack the Supreme Court’ mode. Jon Roberts said that the majority’s decision is an act of will, not legal judgement and that the right it announced had no basis in the constitution nor in constitutional precedence. It really is a sign of conservative insanity and intellectual dishonesty.
But Jon Stewart was not done. He would use Donald Trump to have the last laugh. Conservatives are seldom ever able to live the purity they attempt to codify in law or in the behavior of others. One just need remember that many of those that worked hard to impeach Bill Clinton themselves had various ‘sexual misadventures ‘ that made Clinton’s pale relative to theirs.
Stewart played a CNN clip where Donald Trump had no answer when Jake Tapper pretty much asked him if a thrice married Trump was in any position to discuss marriage morality with anyone let alone same sex couples. Any questions why these guy should simply be quite and let folks live there own lives as they see fit?