Sunday, February 16 – Last
Week Tonight returns! After a quick rundown of what happened between
seasons, we looked at Trump’s acquittal, especially the notion from those like
Susan Collins that he “learned his lesson” after the experience. But of course,
as the recent Roger Stone sentencing demonstrates, that lesson was apparently,
“I can get away with anything.” Big points for the jokes about Stone’s dress
sense; my favorite was “a man whose day planner just reads ‘FRAME ROGER
RABBIT.’” The main story examined Medicare for All and the primary criticisms
of it: heavy cost, increased wait times, and reduced choice. The provider who
found it was cheaper to offer
patients $500 and fly them to Mexico to purchase prescriptions was
mind-boggling, and as John pointed out, no one should have to prioritize which
organ to treat or come up with a catchy-enough hashtag to solicit healthcare
funds from the Internet.
The Daily Show is off this week and Patriot Act still hasn’t come back. One
thing I’ve been appreciating about The
Daily Show lately is Jordan’s return to do his “Jordan Klepper Fingers the
Pulse” pieces at Trump rallies. I don’t know how he manages to keep doing those
field reports time and time again, but more power to him, because wow.
These
pieces are that unique mix of ludicrous and horrifying that’s so pervasive
these days. The things that come out of people’s mouths in these stories are
absolutely absurd, and Jordan is so good at never openly mocking them, just
giving them enough rope to hang themselves. There’ve been times where I’ve had
to rewind multiple times on these pieces because I’m laughing so hard that I
miss the next line. But at the same time, they’re terrible, because they’re a
powerful reminder of what a number of people genuinely espouse.
When
you spend a lot of time with progressives, get your news from mainstream
sources, and watch shows like The Daily
Show, it can be easy to think there’s only one way to interpret the things
Trump says and does, but that obviously isn’t true. If it was, we wouldn’t be
in our present situation and I wouldn’t be worried about 2020. There are some
people who hang on his every word and see “deep state” conspiracies everywhere
they turn, and this is what they believe. These field pieces are more potent
for me than Fox News clips because I know that, regardless of what Fox News
anchors personally believe, there’s definite calculation in how they craft
their stories, designing them to frighten and enrage. But Jordan’s interviews give
you a glimpse at the people who see Fox News as news rather than propaganda.
I
remember, back when Jordan was a full-time correspondent on the show, it
occurred to me that no one else on the show could really do what he does. As
the sole white male correspondent at the time, Jordan was the only one who
could get inside a crowd like that and get people to say what they really think
without shutting down or being defensive. Behind the guise of the “embodiment
of white male privilege” character he often played, Jordan could let the people
at the rallies think he was “one of them” and get their honest opinions
unfiltered by any concern about “libs” in their presence. (That said, I do
vividly remember the time the show sent Hasan to the Republican National
Convention, especially the woman who earnestly told Hasan that he was “one of
the good ones” (Muslims.))
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