On Tuesday, Jon Stewart sat back and took some time to discuss the GOP election strategy: fearmongering. Stewart rolled clips of Bill O’Reilly and Charles Krauthammer explaining that Democrats have no good arguments, and the only reason someone may vote Blue is “emotion.”
This may be true, to some extent. “Emotion” would be a driving force behind any movement for equal rights, which has been a large part of Democrats’ platform, but the Right willfully ignores the numerous improvements our economy has seen under President Obama.
“If you’re looking for rational argument about how best to govern, you have to turn to the Republicans!” Stewart said. He then rolled a series of GOP campaign ads focusing on the issues: Ebola and ISIS, with many blaming President Obama for “Ebola inside the U.S.”
“Vote to keep terrorists off U.S. soil,” another urged viewers, playing into the fearful paranoia of right-wing voters. “Vote Republican.”
“I thought that was a very powerful and cogent, essayistic argument,” Stewart said. “Move over ‘Hope and Change,’ and welcome ‘Vote For Us Or Get Beheaded While Pooping Blood!'”
“Some might say it takes a lot of balls to say your opponent has no good, rational argument when your best argument appears to be reaching into older voters’ heads and poking their amygdalas,” Stewart added. “I probably should have just said “fear centers.”
Stewart briefly covered Texas’ restrictive new voter registration laws, which were briefly nixed because they amount to a modern day poll tax until they were finally reinstated for no better reason than “It’s Texas.” Despite claims of widespread fraud, Stewart noted that there have only been two proven cases since 2002.
“Actually, that’s 20 million votes cast,” said Stewart. “So that’s point one parts per million” that were fraudulent. “Or less than how much cockroach we allow in our yogurt.”
Watch the full segment, below:
