We still have months of Trump speeches to get through till November, but it seems likeJon Stewart’s patience for the candidate is already at its limit. Of course, it gets a little harder to defend him when he utters the words “I wanna be a dictator,” butThe Daily Showtook aim at Republicans that tried to frame this as patriotism.
Before it got to Trump, however, there was a lot more to dissect from the week. First, Stewart addressed President Joe Biden’schange of demeanor during a House Chamber assembly. Biden was emphatic about the State of the Union being a strong entity. The speech prompted a response from Alabama’s Republican SenatorKatie Brittwho—to put it mildly—seems to have comestraight out of a horror movie. Britt whispers at weird moments and uses a threatening tone that doesn’t match the setting of the video at all.
In related news, Stewart addressedRepublicans’ tendency to refer to themselvesas “more American” than Democrats. This is due to the fact that they randomly refer to the Constitution as their guidebook, but the host stressed that, more often than not, their conduct doesn’t match the guidelines of the Constitution at all—andsometimes not even the Ten Commandments. Stewart then connected their rhetoric with their idea that Trump alone is the one who can enforce the values of the Constitution. But Stewart doesn’t think this makes them patriots at all.
How Do Democracies Die?
In the interview segment, Stewart invitedbest-selling authorSteven Levitskywho took the world by storm when he co-wroteHow Democracies Die. Now, Levitsky is publishing another book, titledTyranny of the Minority. During the interview, Levitsky spelled out that his intention with his previous book was to point out to Americans how they couldidentify signs that democracy might be in trouble.
His new book is a follow-up and a response to people who were worried abouthow they could take actionwhen they identified the signs. In order to do that, Levitsky had to talk about the creation of the Constitution itself, and in what context it was created. The author stressed that in thelast half-century or so, the U.S. let go of thinking up ways to improve democracy and broke down why the idea of a dictatorship ended up sounding so irresistible to some people who support Trump’s visions.
