Guest Post by Michael J.W. Stickings
Jon Stewart? Bad for democracy? Am I losing my mind?
At the Post, columnist Richard Morin points to a study by two East Carolina University political scientists which found that “young people who watch [The Daily Show] develop cynical views about politics and politicians that could lead them to just say no to voting”.
College students. Those non-voting bums!
Now, there’s a good deal wrong with the study — and I don’t just say that as one of Stewart’s most ardent fans. As Liz asks at BlondeSense: “[W]hat is wrong with American citizens being less trustful of their government and political candidates?… What is wrong with questioning our governments policies?”
Nothing. It’s the American way, isn’t it? Revolution may or may not be a good thing every now and then, but a healthy skepticism of government is a central democratic impulse. I’m sure Locke and the Founders would agree. Perhaps even Socrates would agree.
For more, see also Shakespeare’s Sister. And Kevin Hayden at The American Street: “You know what the greatest disincentive for voting is? The way the Republicans rigged the vote in Florida, Ohio and elsewhere in the last two presidential elections. The whole electronic voting scam. Politicians that practice cronyism. Leaders who torture in our name… That’s not cynicism. That’s a broken political system.”
And Gloria at The All Spin Zone, who counters this lame study (of which Morin is but the lame messenger) with some reporting of her own: “According to a study done by PA’s Annenberg Election Survey, TDS viewers were the most informed viewers on the issues in 2004. Political knowledge has a direct effect on political choices. Young voters were John Kerry’s strongest supporters and George W. Bush’s most vocal detractors.
Of course, the anti-Stewart right buys the study completely. See, for example, Ed Morrissey at Captain’s Quarters, who assumes, without anything to back up his assumption, that “people who [find] Jon Stewart hilarious [suffer] from a form of superficiality”. He also claims that “reliance on satire and sarcasm alone requires little real courage, especially in a free society”.
Has he even seen The Daily Show? If so, does he get it?
Jon Stewart is an educational satirist. In contrast to the news media, which often report the latest political spin without so much as an inkling of irony, Stewart educates us all — and not just the collegiate among us — in the ways of politics. For example, while the MSM will report on Cheney’s latest remarks on Iraq, and do so virtually context-free, Stewart will juxtapose those remarks with previous, and often contradictory, remarks.
If some of Stewart’s viewers turn into cynics, laughing at leaders who make fools of themselves, that’s only because current political reality itself breeds such cynicism. How is it possible to look at what’s going on at both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue and not become something of a cynic?
I would hope that many of Stewart’s viewers don’t stop and cynicism and do what they can to remake political reality, but I would much rather have America’s young people, its first-time voters, understand American politics as it is rather than as the Republicans and their spin machine and the news media that report that spin as truth would have them understand it. I would rather have them turning away from the polls holding their noses than voting out of ignorance and fear.
Not voting is a political statement. Voting with knowledge of things as they really are is democratic responsibility. Jon Stewart puts his views on a path to knowledge and responsibility.
Jon Stewart is good for democracy.