The other day over on my Book of Faces, I said that I was going to try and cool it with the political posts. I tried, I really did, but I guess what's been said is true. Politics is like Malaria. Once you've been infected, even if you have a period of remission, you're always going to get re-infected. And it's true. I wanted to keep politics off of this little corner of the internet as much as possible, but I just can't help myself. But at least it's not going to be me ranting about the horrible Shit-Capade that is our current election cycle. Yes, we just finished up what has to be the most odious Republican National Convention in living memory, or at least the worst one since I first became infected with politics. And we've got the Democratic National Convention about to kick off on Monday. Most likely, that will be a circus as well. But anyway, as I said, you're not going to have to read my semi-coherent ramblings on the state of this election. No, I'm going to leave that to a true master, but more on that in a minute.
The landscape of journalism as changed dramatically in the last couple of decades, both in print and on TV. There are no Edward R. Murrows, Walter Cronkites, no H.L. Menckens, no Woodward and Bernsteins, and no Hunter S. Thompsons. And it's a real tragic shame because we need people like them now more than we ever have. The only real bastion left it seems for their kind of fire is the world of Political Satire. Now don't get me wrong, John Oliver, Samantha Bee, Stephen Colbert, Larry Wilmore, and Trevor Noah are great, and they're doing great things. But the man that, in a way, "trained" all of them, their Jedi Master, if you will(See? I brought it back to nerdishness for a sec) has been sadly absent for the last year. And I think that the timing of that fact was unfortunately the worst it could have been, considering what's been going on in the election for the last year.
Well, on Thursday night for 10 glorious minutes, the Master Skywalker(did it again!) of Political Satire returned. After the end of the RNC, Jon Stewart popped up and took over Stephen Colbert's desk on The Late Show and proceeded to show us that even after a year of retirement, he is still the master. Stewart unleashed a blistering attack on Fox News and The Republican Party for their shamelessly hypocritical lauding of Donald Trump for the exact same reasons they claimed to despise President Barack Obama. I won't even bother to try and quote it, Stewart is much better in his own words than I could ever be. If you haven't seen it yet, by all means watch the clip HERE, bask in the awesomeness and fondly remember that time when the sight of a man sitting at a desk scribbling on blue paper struck terror into jackasses on both sides of the aisle.
As awesome as it was, the segment was bittersweet too, because it was most likely a one-time thing. But I'm really hoping that it's not. While I would wish that Stewart would be able to relax and enjoy his retirement, I have a feeling that what's going on has a good chance of driving him back to the desk. We can only speculate on what would be going on if Stewart had been here this whole time. Personally, I'm hoping he would have given Trump a heart-attack by now, or at least an attack in whatever that pump thing is that moves the black sludge through his veins.
Ah, what could have been. But seriously, as great as all of his "Padawans" are, we need Stewart back, at least until the election is done, and the segment on the Late Show showed us exactly why. No one articulates Political Outrage like Jon, and maybe, just maybe, it could shake some people out of their complacency and get them to wake up. We can only dream.
But it's a good dream, and one I'm going to partake in. So, for now, I will just say, O Captain! My Captain! We need you, please come back to us. We'll keep a seat at the desk ready for you.
-Carry On Smartly, My Friends.
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